Your garlic probably is not mature yet. The main clove should divide into a head and the little bulblets you found will probably develop into full sized cloves.

Generally with garlic you plant large cloves to get big heads next year. Small cloves or bulblets will take 2-3 years to produce full sized heads.

The only garlic I am aware of that produces the little bubils on the outside of the bulb is Elephant Garlic. Here in Northern CA, you can replant them immediately at the same depth you found them. They will come up somewhat later than the large cloves you plant in the fall. Most likely will make rounds which you replant the following season. Then they will form cloved heads.

We often see bulbils producing above the bulb in the stem that the leaves and scape grow out of. It is generally a sign of stress, the growers around here agree. A lot of the growers here are growing Spanish Roja, but I don't know if that variety is more prone to it than others. But that isn't on the bulb itself.

You can replant the rounds and they will divide into normal heads next summer. Apparently some garlic is deliberately grown for rounds (in China, perhaps?), as one large round is easier to peel that a bunch of small cloves. I tried planting a bunch of bulbils two years ago to grow for rounds, then ended up planting most of the rounds last fall to increase my harvest this year. We didn't use all of last fall's garlic anyway, so the rounds would have gone to waste if I had held them out.

If you let your garlic put up scapes and let those scapes mature, you can plant the bulbils from the head to increase your crop. But, as I said, it will take a couple of years. Now that I have a good harvest every year, I only let a couple of scapes mature for each variety I grow (Russian Giant, Asian Tempest, and Martin's Heirloom). All three of my varieties have nicely sized bulbils, which make nice rounds in a year. Some have TINY bulbils, and I suspect they take two years to get to a nicely sized round, and three to get a divided head. Haven't tried it, though, so that is just a guess. Martin's Heirloom was selected to grow from bulbils to divided heads in one year, as I understand it, but it isn't that vigorous in my soil and climate.

Catherine

You say you planted the ten cloves in the spring. Garlic is usually planted in the fall. If you have harvested all the cloves that you planted, you can save the immature rounds to replant in the fall. I grow hardnecks that originally came from a grocerty store many, many years ago and get the little bulbils around the base of the garlic. I have never gotten bulbils from the scapes or blooms. I plant the bulbils to get garlic greens or rounds that I replant later.

(pic included)

Thanks for the responses. There was only one of the cloves that I planted that sent up a scape, so I am assuming that the rest weren't mature and thus are just the rounds. They are pretty good size compared to a single clove, so if I can get them planted this fall perhaps they will be nice sized heads next summer!

The little growths on the rounds were similar to what I've seen on Elephant Garlic, but obviously much smaller. Check out the picture below...

If I plant the bulbils from the scapes or the ones that were stuck to the rounds around June 1st, will they grow and enlarge? Then I could leave them in place or either replant at the proper time in the fall.

Here is a picture of the rounds and other little bulblet things. Most of them I had already peeled off. One is still stuck onto the round.

Here is a link that might be useful:

Very interesting to read. I was going to start a thread and inquire
about those bulbits that have grown on the stems, 3 to 4 inches above the ground.
Since I planted several varietie from store bough garlics, I don't know the names.
These particular ones, I think are hardneck with pinkish foils/papers.
here is a picture:
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The clusters of bulbils that occur within the stem are a result of the scapes not growing completely due to some cultural issue or another. Sometimes a crop will scape in unison and sometimes not. I harvest all at the same time and have noticed the bulbs within the stem which develops as the garlic cures.

still-kris, It did not seem that I had any problems with the stems. They were thick, strong and tall.
Plus this has happened with just one variety, not all of them.
As you can see on the picture the white one do not have any bulbits on their stems.

I am not an expert on this, but my thinking is that this is a characteristic of certain variety.

cyrus

I have been growing hundreds of garlic of two varieties for over 10 years and have observed this mostly in the hardneck variety I grow. And it does, indeed, seem that individuals of the same variety grown in the same bed will have scapes that appear and mature at different times. This could be simply because the "parent" plants were grown in different beds (any one of 13) which do vary somewhat in soil composition as I like to experiment with different mixes and types of fertilizers.

At any rate, well watered and fertilized crops will mature simultaneously, but some years plants are ready to harvest without having put out a scape. After harvesting and curing for some time, the small bulb that would be at the top of the scape if it had matured normally will appear within the stem. You can tell a scape leaf from a true leaf as the true leaf comes up folded in half and opens up, the scape does not, the leafy top is a double layer without a split.

This is what I have gained from observation and experience. You might gain something entirely different.