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When garlic scapes (bolts,) the flowering head has a sheath. My softneck turned hardneck had its sheaths start to open a couple of days earlier than my hardneck that already has ovaries that should have some seed in them, yet the flowers have yet to open. What is happening is that they are very slowly turning purple over the weeks.
Typically, a flower that is flat out not viable will shrivel away. The fact that these haven't even opened yet is somewhat vexing, but the fact that they haven't shriveled up is also encouraging. I'm not quite sure what is going to happen, but as I have never heard of somebody going from softneck garlic purchased at the grocery store to true garlic seed, I am determined, either this year, or in the future, to succeed.
If it does not work this year, I'm going to try a couple of things in the future:
Stressing the original caused it to bolt. Perhaps a bit of stress once it starts to bolt, or possibly once it starts to flower, could kick seed production into gear. Some organisms are like that: Conditions are poor so they reproduce NOW before they die.
Growing different plants with different soil amendments. I haven't worked this one out in detail yet, but this is uncharted territory for me.
However, if I do get seed, I will take care to get some of them to germinate, and I will have done something that I've not heard of anybody else doing. I'll take those bragging rights;)
