Garlic Scapes - Planters Place

If you are growing garlic and if you’re lucky, you’ll get two harvests from one garlic crop: the final bulbs preceded by the garlic scapes. The harvest of garlic bulbs is the ultimate goal, but don’t overlook the plant’s first offering of its mellow yet flavorful flowering head.

That’s right—garlic scapes are the flowering structures that arise in mid to late spring. Just like those Dr. Seuss-looking ornamental allium bulbs sending forth those bobbing bright-purple orbs, garlic bulbs send up a similar structure that will eventually become a flower. The flower may not be as fancy as those purple alliums but it’ll become a flower nonetheless.

Not all garlic types produce garlic scapes. The softneck varieties of garlic, which grow best in regions with milder winters, tend not to produce a flower stalk. Hardneck varieties do send up flower stalk. In fact, there’s where the “hardneck” name originates: The flower stalk makes the garlic bulb have an inflexible neck or top.

To Harvest Garlic Scapes or Not to Harvest?

There are several lines of thought on this topic, about the pros and cons of snipping off the harneck’s flowering stalk.

Pro: Harvesting garlic scapes is thought to focus the plants’ energy production on the growing the bulbs and making them bigger.

Pro: Garlic scapes are mellow and delicious in their own right. Harvested at the right time, the scapes can be roasted whole, added to stir fries, chopped and added to pasta dishes, or even made into pesto.

Con: Some argue that keeping the scape on the plant will give the bulb a longer and better storage time.

Con: Keeping the scape on the plant results in the flower opening up and forming bulbils, which are a tasty addition to salads and dishes themselves.

Con: Some argue that cutting off the scape results in bigger garlic bulbs that are more susceptible to disease.

Since I have garlic planted in two different gardens, what I plan on doing is this: I will harvest the garlic scapes in one garden and leave the scapes on the plants in the second garden. This give me a chance to see which works best for my garden, and also lets me make some tasty garlic scape pesto.