Soft neck garlic

tjg911 · July 2, 2007

As we all know (or may not), soft neck garlic does not grow a scape or have a solid stem thru the bulb to the roots, those are characteristics of a hard neck. Hard neck scapes if allowed to grow will produce bulbils at the top set.
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One of the soft neck plants I pulled yesterday was odd, can anyone explain this? No scape ever grew but there were 6 bulbils about 6" above the top of the bulb. These are about 1/4 - 5/16" in diameter. The outer skin is reddish, I crushed them in a garlic press but they were mostly fibrous.
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I've read that soft neck will change to hard neck when grown up north but I thought that took a couple of seasons? The other soft neck plants do not have this. Any ideas?
.
Tom

July 2, 2007	#1
tjg911 Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: zone 5b northwest connecticut Posts: 2,570	Soft neck garlic As we all know (or may not), soft neck garlic does not grow a scape or have a solid stem thru the bulb to the roots, those are characteristics of a hard neck. Hard neck scapes if allowed to grow will produce bulbils at the top set. . One of the soft neck plants I pulled yesterday was odd, can anyone explain this? No scape ever grew but there were 6 bulbils about 6" above the top of the bulb. These are about 1/4 - 5/16" in diameter. The outer skin is reddish, I crushed them in a garlic press but they were mostly fibrous. . I've read that soft neck will change to hard neck when grown up north but I thought that took a couple of seasons? The other soft neck plants do not have this. Any ideas? . Tom