[richy]

Is there any problem that might acure with the garlic if i snip off the growing tips to use in cooking? i planted them last november and they have all got good growing tips on them.

Cheers


Topic title clarified for search purposes

[Ma and Pa Snip]

I cant work out if you want to cut the tips off to cook,
or the tips off to use the clove.

Garlic isnt like chives, you cant snip and use and the plant continues to grow.

[Kleftiwallah]

At the very tip of the leaf is something called 'the growing point', cut that off and guess what happens? ! ? !    Cheers,   Tony.

[Trillium]

Garlic is different, true, but if you want large cloves, then you must take off the long curling stem which would otherwise flower and reduce the size of the ground bulb. The stem is called the scape, and should be trimmed off as soon as possible so the plant doesn't lose vigor. Use it in cooking, preserving, etc. The base bulb then continues to grow.

[Ma and Pa Snip]

Garlic is different, true, but if you want large cloves, then you must take off the long curling stem which would otherwise flower and reduce the size of the ground bulb. The stem is called the scape, and should be trimmed off as soon as possible so the plant doesn't lose vigor. Use it in cooking, preserving, etc. The base bulb then continues to grow.

Ahh right, we've either been fortunate in never having had garlic produce a flower stem or we've been unfortunate that its never grown properly. Not sure which.

Probably the latter based on the fact our garlic, which we usually plant October time, has never produced very big cloves. Strong taste though.

[mumofstig]

Scapes (the flower heads) don't appear til summer and usually on hardneck garlic, and at a guess I'd say most garlic planted in the UK is softneck garlic

Cutting back the shoots now is not a good idea

[Salmo]

Cutting the tops for cooking at this stage will set the plants back a bit but they will quickly re-shoot. 

Like grass the growing point is hidden right down inside at the bottom of the shoot so you will not kill it.

[richy]

ok thanks for the replies, i will leave them to grow on.