ok,

so your garlic is smaller because you did not dig it up.
in that case your cloves will not size up due to extreme crowding. too many in one spot.
it is possible to separate that clump, replant the tiny cloves, and they will eventually size up
to whatever they are genetically programmed to do. that's what i think will happen at least.
it might take a couple years.


keith

I believe they were small offshoots from the original bulbs that got left in the ground. I was thinking they would do as you said. Any idea if they need to be dried and then replanted, the littlest ones? I wonder if I can dig and separate them and then immediately replant unless there is one large enough to have created cloves? That I would dry and replant the cloves. Little ones that are not mature enough to produce cloves I am not sure the purposed of drying them before replanting.

Drying is for storage, if you want to seperate the smaller ones, dig deep, lift separate and replant, no problems. If you have globe with multiple shoots coming out of it, you can carefully split and replant each clove seperately.

My Mom has a patch of feral garlic which she told me about last fall but I didn't see it until this spring. I think it was some bulb that got missed years ago, then two years ago I thought they were leeks and stuck them in a bed with various allium perennials, then last fall she discovered it was garlic. We're talking 20+ shoots per clump so these are bulbs that multiplied for several years without moving. I dug up one clump because it had weeds shot through, and I separated a few before replanting the main clump as is, for now. Some of the shoots had a large round at the bottom, some were maybe further along and did not have any bulb left on them for the time of year. I took a few with marble sized rounds from the edge and spaced them out to see what they produce, whether they make scapes or not, and figure out what they are. They may even be softnecks, IDK.
@Sue_CT you may get a scape or two leaving them in a clump, but you'll do better to separate them for next year if that's your favorite thing. You might also really enjoy the green garlic if you like the milder taste of scapes - just pull a few shoots whenever you like for that. The others will thank you for the space. Or keep the max and space them out in the fall for next year.
As long as you space them out every year, they'll keep getting bigger until they reach full size, generally.
Purple Stripe garlic takes longer to size up from bulbils compared to other types. So YMMV depending on the variety you planted.

Wondering why we dry cloves and don't just separate and replant. Maybe less likely to encourage disease.

Because... we eat them?

LOL we are still talking about garlic, yes?

its a timing thing sue.
if you harvest garlic in june, and immediately replant, you would have maybe four full months the garlic is in
the ground, and starting to grow again, and then whammo, frost, and snow comes, and either damages green growth
or maybe kills it. you want to replant garlic in the fall, and give it time to get some root growth, but not enough
time for top growth to occur.


keith

What made me wonder is that these little garlic plants have been coming back for at least 2 years, and they have not been killed off by that sequence of events. Sometimes I just wonder stuff.

Yeah, garlic is tough stuff and hard to kill. But then there are the mysterious cues on which they decide whether to make a divided bulb or a round. Do I have enough space around me? Are days getting long or short? Is it dry or wet? Is it hot or cold? Leaves us all wondering, exactly when and how are the garlics making these decisions... and what can I do to tweak it and get what I wanted?
I have moved/transplanted garlic without drying in between - in spring after the shoots are up - with a generous amount of dirt if possible to minimize root disturbance. Not so when I moved mom's feral stuff this spring as they were tight together so some roots got torn off and they had to go into fresh dirt. I didn't take a close look last time I was out but afaik they were not fazed by being divided and moved. Just make sure they get watered as needed until they are settled in the new place.
Even if they don't make a divided bulb, spacing them out gives a better chance for more large rounds to develop - and those are great for planting. If you get really large ones, you can get to a full sized bulb directly without the wait of years. But don't be surprised if you get some rounds anyway by leaving them bunched together. It would probably help to keep them weeded either way, so they do their best.