I copied the following text from a garlic cultist's web site. The author grows garlic in Texas:
>When your soil is fully ready to be planted, take the bulbs you want to
> plant and break them apart into their individual cloves (Being sure to
> keep each variety separate from others. Soak each varieties' cloves in
> water containing one heaping tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda (baking
> soda) and liquid seaweed per gallon to protect them from fungus as well
> as give them an energy boost. Leave the cloves in the soda water
> overnight for 16 to 24 hours or long enough for the clove covers to
> loosen so the liquid comes into contact with the surfaces of the cloves
> and the clove covers loosen up so that the cloves can easily be
> extracted without damaging them.
>Garlic's clove covers can contain fungal spores, or conidia or the eggs of pests
> such as mites and are best discarded rather than planted since the
> first thing the cloves do is to shed them, anyway. The baking soda
> helps neutralize the fungi. Commercial growers don't usually have time
> to peel cloves bare but they need to find an economical way to do it
> because garlic diseases or pests can put them out of business.
> Gardeners have the time and and should peel the clove covers off.
>The cloves should then be soaked in rubbing alcohol or 100 proof vodka for three
> or four minutes and then planted immediately. The alcohol kills mites
> and other pests and any pathogens the first soaking missed. I'm not
> sure if the alcohol soaking kills mite eggs or not but removing the
> clove covers and swishing the bare cloves around vigorously in alcohol
> will likely remove most of them. Every time I have done this, the
> treated garlic turned out better than the untreated control group.
> Alcohols are on the National Organic Program accepted list and baking
> soda is accepted under part 205.605. This may seem a little draconian,
> but many pathogens that affect garlic present few or no symptoms until
> it is too late, and the soaking eliminates most problems before they > develop.
My question is: "Do you actually do all of this stuff"?