My garlic scapes are ready, which seems awful early especially since I didn't get them in the ground until December. Anyways, that reminded me of the lesson I learned last year. Why you are not supposed to wash garlic after digging it.
I hosed off most of my garlic last year, one bulb at a time the day it came out of the dirt and then it was dried on the lawn in a few hours without touching any other plants befor I bunched them and hung them it up to cure.
The garlic I didn't wash and set aside for planting was fine six months later when I went to plant, but the rest that had been washed had at least half of the cloves in any bulb go bad with dry discoloration.
I wasn't too upset because I found out something. I'm not satisfied when someone tells me not to do something but doesn't tell me exactly why.