Garlic!

[Johnny PhantomMember]

Hello Charles,

Hope all’s well.
We’ve got a question for you about garlic… we’ve got Elephant, Sprint, and Thermidrome; all of which are coming along nicely, having reached about 70cm in height.
Now, we’re wondering what the best thing to do about harvesting might be? Some of them have started producing the middle stem (with the seed-head), and we’re wondering if we should simply cut the whole stem off completely, or just the middle flowering stem?
Reading your ‘Organic Gardening’, I was wondering if we should have cut off the whole stem some time ago, in order to prompt more development in the bulb… oh well, the leaves we’ve been eating have been tasty!
Thanks in advance…

JP.

[charlesModerator]

 The flowering stems are called scapes and are tasty when young and tender. Yes it is best to remove them soon after you see them – only cut out the stem which has a flower bud and not any leaves – to encourage bulb formation, but on elephant garlic this is not recommended, I am unsure why. 

Most softneck garlic (Solent Wight, Thermidrome etc, and I think Sprint?) does not produce scapes.

All bulbs can be harvested ;ate June to early July, if you want best-sized bulbs. Harvesting later means they store less well as skin is shed in damp soil. Harvesting earlier means you have a fat, tender stem of garlic with little bulb. I hope this helps.

[Author]

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