With the arrival of spring and the start of garlic scape season here I noticed something unusual today. Printanor, a softneck garlic is putting up scapes. I have heard of this happening but was not expecting to occur. Just wondering if anyone has any ideas on what the triggers are for this to happen

I think the answer to that is usually pretty general - "Stress" of one kind or another.
I don't grow enough softnecks to comment about specific stresses, but I have seen scapes on them fairly frequently here.

@Whwoz Are the garlic you planted from last years harvest or newly purchased? Maybe some hardneck got mixed in...

@pondgardener , that's one option I can't rule out, they are from ones that I grew last season, who knows if what I got originally was correct. I can't recall if scapes were on it or not. @Bower comments make interesting reading, and considering how wet it is here , excess water stress is certainly one possiblity.

Just looking up Printanor, to see what the original habitat might be like, and I see it's one of the French INRA virus-free varieties:
https://ail-echalote-certifie.org/en/th ... printanor/
This is interesting because the varieties that produced scapes and bulbils in Sari's garden were also some different INRA softnecks, and those bulbil grown plants in my garden have been fairly prone to scapes here as well. I wonder if the tissue culture could have an effect on the tendency to bolt... Just a wild speculation but, could endemic virus be a contributor to the non bolting phenotype of the softnecks? IDK.
Also possible, the French varieties are very adapted to mild and dry climates - which may also be true for softnecks in general. I only had one scape on a softneck this past summer which was really unusually hot and dry for us, but had many more in the more 'normal' seasons, almost every plant and even in those coming straight from a bulbil produced a scape. Wet weather may be one of the stress triggers for bolting in softnecks generally.
I will add that in the past we grew the softneck New York White here, and although not common I did see a few at the farm that bolted one year. They are said to be adapted to the northeast climate so perhaps a bit less prone to bolting here. Maybe more tolerant of wetter weather.

I have had both fall and spring planted softnecks growing real scapes, but most have had those short hard stems and the bulbils grow inside the leaves. That is why I skipped planting the softnecks, because I got only few without any kind of hard stem.

I had a few garlic surprises too.

As usual, what I believe is the variety Asian Tempest put out it's usual huge purple bulbils larger than a pea bulging out of the center of the stalk 6 inches above the bulb. This year the cloves were pure white with not a trace of color.

I had another bulb with an anomaly, one of the artichoke type softnecks threw out a giant bulbil scape, also just a few inches above the bulb. Out of about 20 softnecks, this was the only bulb that was weird.
Bower, I think many years ago we discussed a garlic I had bought from Pinetree , perhaps German White (not the common hardneck though) also threw scapes when stressed. Maybe this is the sole survivor from that purchase.

- Lisa

Edit: the giant bulbils are headed to mmmm if anyone is interested; 1 white and 3-4 purple

greenthumbomaha wrote: ↑Sat Nov 12, 2022 11:11 pm Edit: the giant bulbils are headed to mmmm if anyone is interested; 1 white and 3-4 purple

I really hope to get some of those bulbils!
Steve K

steve ok wrote: ↑Sun Nov 13, 2022 2:55 pm

greenthumbomaha wrote: ↑Sat Nov 12, 2022 11:11 pm Edit: the giant bulbils are headed to mmmm if anyone is interested; 1 white and 3-4 purple

I really hope to get some of those bulbils!
Steve K

I think the secret is safe. I'm also sending packets of mixed porcelain bulbils, and who knows whatever is in the mix from when I gathered them. But there is no confusing the packaged bulbils with the bulbils on steroids

- Lisa

When did you plant it? Many french softnecks are actually not planted in autumn, but what I'd call winter-spring, meaning february in France. And they like a long mild spring. Garlic is one of those things that are tricky to get right, and where your climate will give a very different result. The neck bulbils are just bulbils on a short stalk , they don't get to reach out of the leaves. From the french softnecks, the ail de la drome ones (thermidrome, etc) are the most reliable, they can take some heat as well as cold while still putting big quality bulbs and very rarely short stalks (taste is just average).

Looks like the season is playing around with the softnecks, the Lokalen plants have also put up some scapes, making it 2 out of 3 silverskins to do so.