Chesnok Red is a purple stripe variety, not a Rocambole, but both being hardnecks might react similarly to temperature controlled storage. For your small quantity you might experiment.

Quoting Ron Engeland, a Rocambole grower, from his book Growing Great Garlic:

"Temperatures of forty to fifty degrees Fahrenheit for one to two weeks will initiate sprouting in ophio garlics of the Rocambole group."

"With the exception of planting stock that you want to begin growth , garlic should never be stored between forty and fifty degrees Fahrenheit."

"Garlic stored at fifty to sixty degrees Fahrenheit seems to require two to three times the length of exposure in order to break the length of rest. That's roughly two to four weeks for Rocamboles and six to twelve weeks for other garlics."

"Best long term storage seems to occur when storage temperatures are very low (thirty-two to thirty-five degrees Fahrenheit) or close to room temperature (60 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit)."

He goes on to say that the garlic in low temperature storage comes out of its dormancy rapidly whereas room temperature storage comes out of dormancy gradually.

Hope that helps.

hortster

Thanks, Horster.

With only three heads it is hard to experiment. But it seems like there is no harm in refrigerating. I think I will refrigerate them all this year, and next year I will experiment when I have more heads to play with.

I would say the soil temps stay around 50 or so through the coldest part of the winter. It is also fairly wet here in winter. Two inches down the soil seldom if ever dries out. I will stick a thermometer in there this winter to see the actual temperature in the morning and again in the afternoon somewhere around the winter solstice.

I guess it is not that big a deal to refrigerate the garlic. But it is just one more thing to remember.

--McKenzie

I have also heard and believe that refrigerating garlic makes them sprout. Perhaps, best storage temperature is around 60F, like in a dry basement. .

Seysonn,

My wife refrigerated the first head I harvested. The cloves in that head sprouted. None of the others heads have yet sprouted. So I believe you are correct.

I think the idea behind refrigerating it is that if you live in a mild winter area (as I do), it may NOT sprout (due to never getting cold enough). But if I refrigerate my seed garlic before I plant it, it should sprout with high reliability. The eating garlic will not go in the refrigerator.

Hopefully this makes sense.

--McKenzie