DFBrews
07-14-2021, 18:19
I prefer hardneck garlic over soft neck even though it doesn?t keep as long. Harvest day was today and I grabbed a pic of the different life stages of hardneck.
hardneck produces a hard center stem while soft neck does not, everything purchased in store unless stated otherwise is softneck.
the hard stem when young curls in a coil shape and is called a scape, it is delicious thinly sliced and served as a garnish on anything and makes a great pesto and compound butter. if the scape is allowed to mature it forms bulbils that when growing almost look like a flower bud. When the scape matures it stands straight up and the paper cover splits and eventually the bulbils fall off. They are basically small little garlic cloves that if allowed to dry and fall off they will overwinter and then germinate and grow in the spring.
Once it germinates and grows a season normally they produce a single bulb marble sized and up. This then dies back and over winters with some growth in the fall this is called vernalization. The next spring the single bulb fully grows and will finally produce a bulb with multiple cloves. Most farmers will plant the individual cloves in the fall which bypasses the bulbil stage and reduces the time needed to produce more bulbs. Normally the only reason bulbils will be used is when a disease is introduced to the bulbs of the crop which can carry over year to year. So to maintain genetics but take the ground portion of the life cycle out they will do bulbils. Softneck is solely planted with bulbs year to year.
Here is a picture of hardnecks life cycle mature bulbils on the left first year singles in the middle and second year bulbs on the right. The variety is Russian purple
https://i.imgur.com/9kqOu8P.jpg
hardneck produces a hard center stem while soft neck does not, everything purchased in store unless stated otherwise is softneck.
the hard stem when young curls in a coil shape and is called a scape, it is delicious thinly sliced and served as a garnish on anything and makes a great pesto and compound butter. if the scape is allowed to mature it forms bulbils that when growing almost look like a flower bud. When the scape matures it stands straight up and the paper cover splits and eventually the bulbils fall off. They are basically small little garlic cloves that if allowed to dry and fall off they will overwinter and then germinate and grow in the spring.
Once it germinates and grows a season normally they produce a single bulb marble sized and up. This then dies back and over winters with some growth in the fall this is called vernalization. The next spring the single bulb fully grows and will finally produce a bulb with multiple cloves. Most farmers will plant the individual cloves in the fall which bypasses the bulbil stage and reduces the time needed to produce more bulbs. Normally the only reason bulbils will be used is when a disease is introduced to the bulbs of the crop which can carry over year to year. So to maintain genetics but take the ground portion of the life cycle out they will do bulbils. Softneck is solely planted with bulbs year to year.
Here is a picture of hardnecks life cycle mature bulbils on the left first year singles in the middle and second year bulbs on the right. The variety is Russian purple
https://i.imgur.com/9kqOu8P.jpg