Let them sit a while. I pull mine after they curl, then make a nice meal out of them.

Do you actually pull them or cut them?

more like snap. I bend mine to the side and they break off.

let the scapes grow until they complete 1 full complete circle and start to up up to the sky. i would cut them and do it at an angle so water runs off vs sitting on a flat surface. also cut them early on a warm day so they dry before sunset. this will seal the cut vs leaving it open to dampness at night.

i would not break them but that's me. even if they broke off cleanly a knife cut is cleaner and like i said you can cut at an angle.

tom

I cut them off just as soon as the white swelling shows up. The stem *maybe* grows another few inches, at most.

so much for my advice to do this on a dry day. i have not been in the garden for 6-7 days and i was shocked to see most plants have scapes that need to be cut... they weren't even there a week ago. it's dry in the am but humid with more rain for later in the day, all night and i doubt they'll really dry off but it's going to rain for the next 5-6 days just like it has for the past 5-6 weeks almost every day. so i cut them. my garlic was really hard to clean when dug last july because it rained constantly - i watered my garden from late may to mid july TWO times!!!! when dug the garlic was encased in very damp soil and was very hard to clean off. if left on it would hold moisture and turn to hard packed soil. i sure wish it'd stop raining as garlic does not require much water. in fact i seldom water it when we have normal rain or little rain. this is just crazy even when we get a day or 2 without rain the sun never comes out. my pole beans, cukes and butternut squash are a yellowish green from no sun but especially too much water. fortunately my soil drains well but it is constantly wet. temps in the 50-60 most of the time and that's day time. global warming my a$$!

tom