Silly Garlic question

[CarolineSonning]

Hi all,
I planted some garlic at the end of Feb and it was all looking fine till this week when suddenly they have either flopped over or those that have remained upright appear to be developing a seed or flower type thing. Are they ready for harvesting or has something gone badly wrong?
Any help would be appreciated.
Caroline

[BigstU]

Dont worry nothing has gone wrong, what I do is break off the developing flower head and wait till the leaves start turning brown. They are then ready to pull.

[Slug]

My garlic has started to flop everywhere, so I'm waiting a while before harvesting, but what I noticed is that I've not a little 'mini garlic' growing up the stem! It's just a few cloves but I thought it was a bit odd - that I have the main bulb, then a few random cloves in the stem!

I'll have to wait until harvesting time to see if the bulbs with normal stems are bigger than the ones with cloves stashed in the stems!

Anyone else had this before?

[Shortie]

Slug can you post us a picture?

[BigstU]

Hi Slug, just pulled mine today and noticed the same thing on some of them. From pulling have noticed these shoots are coming from individual cloves on the outside of the bulb. Only a few are like this, they all look ok

[Lesley Jay]

Yes Slug someone wrote about it recently. They had pulled the little garlic off for cooking with and I think they were called scars or scraps or scrapes. I must look for the post for you.

[Slug]

Sounds to me like bonus garlic really! Certainly happy if the main bulbs still turn out OK! I'll try to get a photo this evening (if it's not raining... weather looking decidedly dubious here!)

[CarolineSonning]

So the fact that many are lying flat on the ground doesn't matter?

[Lesley Jay]

Here you go Slug I have found the post. It is named Garlic Growing by Julie and is in Vegging Out on page 3. The last post was by Gardenfan on 26.6. and you want reply #13 by Maranne.

[smallblueplanet]

Someone also posted that you could take the scapes off and later in autumn plant them and you get single bulbs (I think) next year.

Can't find the info though I fancied giving it a go. Anyone else trying it?

[Slug]

Hi Lesley Jay - thanks for the info on the post. I had no idea that it was actually the garlic bolting. I noticed that the bulbs which have these scapes in the neck, are in fact smaller than the bulbs with no scapes.

CarolineSonning - I left my garlic flopped on the floor for just a few days before curiosity got the better of me. Also, what started as a few flopping, turned into 'mass flopping' and they were laying all over the lawn, so I decided they had to come up. I think that you just need to make sure that the leaves are starting to go brown, then you can pull them.

I've attached a picture of my 'scapes' at the request of Shortie

SBP - do you think the scapes will give as good a bulb as if I planted 1 clove? Not sure if it's better to eat the scapes or save them for planting. Hmmm.. perhaps I'll save a few to see what happens!

[Shortie]

Wow, I've bever seen that before! I did have a garlic bolt on me before but it did so by flowering

[bramble]

Hi Slug, if i were you i would plant proper garlic cloves. You will only be disappointed if they don't do as well as the normal ones although you could try one or two as an experiment.

[smallblueplanet]

Slug - I think you'll only get a single bulb but I'm not sure - I'm gonna try as there's not a lot to lose 'food-wise'!

What variety are yours, they look like ours, which are Albigensian Wight? But we didn't manage to get them in in autumn they went in in spring, they're small but perfectly formed (seperate cloves). We have some spring-planted garlic Solent Wight that look to be doing very well.

[Lesley Jay]

I have been having a google and if you plant the scapes they grow into a single clove the first year but the following year develope into normal segmented bulbs. Or you can plant them and use the green tops in stir fries, salads and pestos.