Garlic scapes are the hard, central flowering stems of hardneck garlic, but they don’t actually flower in the traditional sense. The stems grow straight up for several inches, then curl once or twice around before growing upward and blooming. If left to mature, the seed pod at the end ...
Do you harvest garlic scapes while they’re still straight or after they’ve curled? Garlic scapes harvested young are still tender enough to eat raw (although too pungent for some palates!) They can be cooked in stir-fries, pickled, or made into pesto. Harvested a little older, you may...
Weed between the plants to reduce the competition for water and nutrients. This is best done by hand, as hoeing could damage the developing bulbs and their shallow roots. Remove any flower stems, or 'scapes', that the plants produce – you can eat these in stir-fries. Growing garlic: pro...
Hardneck varieties (such as ‘Sprint’) have a stronger taste, suit very cold areas, harvest earlier, and produce edible flower stems called scapes. However, they only store until spring. Growing bothtypes of garlicensures you a supply of delicious garlic all year. Softneck garlic is the eas...
In early June, the fall-planted garlic will begin to produce garlic scapes. A garlic scape is the curly flower stalk of a hardneck garlic plant, and they’re not really a concern with softneck varieties. Many home gardeners hate the chore of removing the scapes, while others think of the...
many of you have told me that these are actually garlic leaves and not garlic scapes. Sorry for the confusion – as I mentioned above I have a brown thumb and was mistaken about this. I was just so excited to see something growing in my kitchen window that I had to share 😂 I hope...
The flowering 'scapes' on hardneck garlic provide a bonus extra harvest Hardneck vs Softneck Garlic There’s a dizzying choice of garlic varieties to choose from, but they can broadly divided into two types: softneck and hardneck. Softneck garlic is what you tend to find in the grocery...
But to me the late-spring arrival of garlic scapes, the aboveground parts of hardneck garlic plants, means something else: garlic scape pesto. I picked up a recipe for it from Potomac Vegetable Farms–handwritten, then copied on green paper–at least two decades ago, and it’s had a spot...
As the garlic begins to flourish in the spring, you will see garlic scapes begin to grow in abundance. While it may be tempting to let them grow, you shouldn’t. Left unchecked, the scapes will take the energy that the garlic bulb needs to grow big and healthy. ...
Garlic requires a long season for optimal yield; garlic’s long season of growth must include 6 or more weeks of chilly weather for optimal bulb or head production. Allow eight months to maturity after autumn planting for the largest bulbs; spring-planted garlic (set out 6 weeks before the ...