19/06/2025
🧄 Here is a great example of why it does not matter if you cut your hardneck garlic scapes.
I have been growing garlic for I think 8 years now. I start 100-150 cloves each year. I don’t plant the smallest cloves, but the rest goes in the ground. I cut some scapes to eat, I don’t cut others. The majority of my crop does not get cut.
This year I probably cut 10% of the scapes.
I pulled 2 music plants tonight to check them. They had some yellowing on the leaves but not 2-3 yellow leaves as I often see suggested for harvesting. The scapes started to really stand up in the last 24 hours. The bulb on the right had the scape, the one on the left had the scape removed a few weeks ago. They were side by side, in the same bed. I ended up pulling all of them because they look great & rain is coming tomorrow. Otherwise, I probably would have harvested tomorrow rather than 9:15 at night.
I’d say my average for the year is slightly smaller than these but 3/4 of the harvest look like these, with the smallest about golfball size.
I’ve waited for 2-3 leaves to yellow before & ended up with some not great bulb & I feel like they did not store as well.
Now these cure. Perfect timing. I think I have 4 cloves left from last year. This has been my average harvest experience for the last 4 years.
If you are not growing garlic, you are missing out. It is an easy plant to grow, it just has a long growing season, but what else are you growing in winter & early spring. Seeing little shoots of green in the winter brings me joy. And not buying garlic plus getting to eat great garlic also brings me joy all year.
I’m not sure what is going to fill these now empty beds, or in empty space in the companion planted beds. They already have tomatoes, chives, basil, lemon balm & more. Probably a cover crop/companion plant, maybe buckwheat in the beds with the tomatoes. Perfect for tomato hornworm deterrence. Maybe a nitrogen fixer in the empty bed.
Read Growing Great Garlic. It is where I started.
https://a.co/d/6HjBgty
Happy growing. 😁🌱🧄
