A bulbil experiment

One of the garlic plants produced really huge bulbils this year. I mean five to ten times the size of normal bulbils. I'm going to use them for an experiment.

I have this theory that bulbils are sort of designed to be planted in July/Aug, when they would fall off the scapes naturally if they were allowed to remain in situ. The ones that grow wild in a corner of the garden do send up little sprouts this time of year. I'm wondering if planting the bulbils now would give them a head start, possibly even cutting one whole season off their growth.

What I've done in the past is to sow the bulbils in late October, the same time that the garlic cloves are planted. They then sprout in the spring, grow for a couple months, and die back in late May or June. The next year, unless they're crowded too badly, they grow a bit bigger before dying off, and then the third year they actually produce at least two cloves, sometimes the standard four cloves for this variety.

I'm wondering if I can cut off that first spring die-back by planting now, and letting them grow until the ground freezes in December, when they'll die back, sort of tricking them into thinking they'd had next spring's growth cycle, so next year they'll grow as if it were the second year in the ground.

So. I planted about forty of those mega-bulbils on August 24th in a generally fertile and sunny area of the garden, and I threw in a good amount of composted manure before planting. They're spaced at least an inch away from each other to give them room to grow, although they're scattered, rather than in straight lines. I have a thick layer of mulch next to the bed, but will wait until the first hard frost before covering them.

Now that I'm writing this down, it dawns on me that I should probably do a comparison row of just regular-sized bulbils, so there's no question that it's the timing, rather than the size of the bulbils, that's speeding up the maturing of the bulbs. I'll do that sometime this week. There's enough room in that part of the garden and plenty of manure and regular-sized bulbils for a second strip, and there will only be a few days between the two plantings.

ETA: I did plant that second row of bulbils about a week after the first row.

To be continued.