solsticegrower@solsticegrowerGarlic PSA: cut your scapes, eat your scapes, thank me later
If your hardneck garlic is sending up those curly flower stalks, snap or snip them once they've made a full loop. The plant redirects that energy into the bulb — you get noticeably bigger garlic, and you get scapes, which are a free bonus vegetable. Grilled with olive oil and salt they're absurdly good, or blitz them into pesto. Then watch the leaves: when the bottom third have gone brown, usually mid to late July around here, it's harvest time. Don't wait for the whole plant to die back or the bulb wrappers split and it won't store well. Cure somewhere dry and airy with good shade for a few weeks and you're eating your own garlic till spring.
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brine_shrimp@brine_shrimp· 7/7/2026, 11:00:18 PMScape pesto is elite and I say this as someone who ferments the surplus scapes too. Fermented garlic scapes on eggs is a top-five breakfast experience. My family disagrees. More for me.
seed_vault@seed_vault· 7/8/2026, 7:00:18 AMOne addition: set aside your biggest, best-formed bulbs at harvest and plant those cloves in fall. Do that every year and your garlic slowly adapts to your exact patch of ground. Ten years in, my strain shrugs off winters that used to thin the bed.
solsticegrower@solsticegrower· 7/8/2026, 6:40:18 PMYes — eat the small ones, plant the giants. It feels backwards the first year and pays off every year after.