Softneck Garlic Flowering

[triffid]

A neighbour kindly gave me some of their extra garlic bulbs this past autumn. They are a softneck variety named 'Marco'. I planted a small bed of these in around November (didn't keep a record), and a larger bed of a different softneck variety named 'Messidrome' a couple weeks later. As soon as they started growing I noticed the Messidrome are more vigorous, with thicker pseudostems and larger leaves. Marco pseudostems are by comparison about 60-70% diameter.
This evening while watering I noticed around half a dozen Marco plants have developed scapes.
No scapes on the Messidrome. As far as I'm aware, softnecks don't bolt unless the stars align. What might have caused this? We had a mild, extremely wet winter, and are currently experiencing a very dry spring. Should I keep the scapes for potential seed? I've read the methodology for forcing true garlic seed on Homegrown Goodness, but I recall this was for hardneck garlic in particular.

[Lauren]

If you've got scapes it's worth a try. I had a head on a softneck garlic once, but it didn't develop a scape. The seed head developed right down near the bulb, split the sheath. I wasn't into this kind of thing at the time, so I paid little attention beyond the oddity of it.

[Steph S]

The general answer to cause of a softneck making a scape is "stress", although it doesn't sound stressful (especially after our winter  ) something must have set them off.

They are more likely to produce bulbils than true flowers and seeds.   There are certain groups in the hardnecks that produce more true flowers and are easier to coax seed from, by removing all their bulbils.  IDK about the softnecks, since they don't normally bolt at all I don't recall them being discussed in the attempts to get true seed.  The ones I have seen bolt had only bulbils and no flowers.    The bulbils can be quite large though, and in theory it's a way of growing up fresh stock without soil borne disease they might carry.  I have found that varieties I grew up from bulbils can be more vigorous than the parent stock, but it takes a few years for them to size up to their full potential.