Elephant garlic bulbils

wild edges

I'm not sure bulbils is the right word but I pulled up all my onions and garlic on Friday and decided to harvest the elephant garlic while I was there. I had planned to leave them in the ground until next year but since they like moisture and we seem to be having a moisture problem right now I thought I'd take the risk and dig them up. The heads are a good size with decent cloves, which is great given the dry spell we've had, but around each head, detached from the main body, were a load of small cloves/bulbs that are too small to use. The internet suggests I should plant these right away before the skins harden and they will make proper garlic heads in 2 years time.

My question is really how to deal with these bulbils. Next year's onion bed isn't prepped yet and it's too dry to plant them even if it was. Can I put them in pots individually until my oinion patch is ready? Or would I be better putting them in one large pot or would they just be better off in the ground? Apparently they'll make a single large bulb next year and then divide into a proper garlic head the year after.

raisingirl

I tried putting them in modules but they didn't sprout. Not sure if that was the lack of depth - seems unlikely - or the difficulty in maintaining moisture levels consistently in too small a soil quantity - more probable. Have you got a place you could use as a nursery bed for them? Where your early potatoes have come out, or between bean rows, maybe (where they will probably get quite a bit of moisture if you water your beans)?