[tjg911]

from what i have read you plant garlic in the fall for it to set roots to prevent heaving during freeze thaw cycles. also you have a bulb ready to grow as soon as conditions are ready come spring. also from what i have read spring planted garlic will produce smaller bulbs or as was said just 1 clove for the whole bulb and if more than 1 clove probably very small bulbs. fall planted garlic produces full sized bulbs. as far as dormancy, i do not know but fall planted garlic does get a good long dormant period.

garlic starts to create a bulb about 30 days prior to harvest so there's a lot of growing that happens in that final month unlike onions that require about 2 months to create a finished bulb once bulbing starts. my garlic is ready to dig about 7/25 for hardneck and a week earlier for softneck. my garlic is 6" tall already so you are way behind but it's your call whether to give it a try. if you have the space to waste then try it but if space is limited i'd wait for fall and use that space for other things.

california, from what i understand, grows just softnecks. i think that hardneck does not do well below a certain latitude (like day short day long onions need to be grown in the correct regions) but up here we can grow both. my hardneck garlic varieties produce larger bulbs than my softnecks but the softnecks store longer. my nootaka rose bulbs are are still tight and rock hard! unfortunately i did not plant this variety or any softnecks last fall due to their smaller bulbs after 2 seasons of growing softnecks. but seeing the great storage this season, better than last, i wish i had planted some softnecks.

tom