I can't answer your question, but I'm anxous to dig this year. This spring my garlic was actually under water for about a week and waterlogged for a long time. I'm actually surprised that there is no apparent damage at this point. They are just now getting a brown tip and I cut the scapes last week. I dug a few for the first time a couple of days ago and they have not started to split into cloves, yet. Time will tell.

How much water is too much? I would say when the garlic bed is submerged in standing water during the maturation stage. It is recommended to give your garlic one inch of water per week minimum until two weeks before harvest time - that is a lot of water so it shows a person how much they can take.

I dug my garlic out of MUD last year (and it was not much fun to say the least). I used up the last stored bulb a month ago. All that rain and wet during the hardening off period is definitely not a good thing but it is not the end of the world either. Let the garlic mature properly in the garden and harvest at the normal time, then be certain to cure and store it properly.

Growing stuff in the great outdoors is always a crapshoot but keep in mind these plants are hardy and have been surviving on their own for many thousands of years - they can take a lot of abuse.

I have found garlic to be one of the tastiest, funnest, easiest, trouble-free, maintenance-free, and disease-free veggies I have ever grown. Here in Minnesota we have some of the wildest climate swings, and temperature and precipitation variations on the continent. Every year is different and every year I get a decent garlic crop (of course some years better than others). The only thing that concerns me is hail.

Best of luck to you!
-Tom

if your soil has good drainage, too much rain should not be a big problem. Garlikc and onions grow relatively shallow. Therefore stands very little chance of rotting.

Thanks everyone