A few weeks ago, an acquaintance was cleaning out his large storage freezer and he found a small paper bag full of garlic cloves (about 500 porcelain type garlic cloves). He offered them to me, knowing that I like garlic, and I took them with much thanks. If anyone is wondering, the reason why they were in the freezer, is that he severely broke his ankle last autumn before all of his garlic was planted, so he put the cloves in several paper bags and put the bags in his large freezer for planting in the spring, which he did. But apparently, he missed one of the bags, and just recently found it.

I would like to plant at least half of the cloves, instead of eating all of them.

The cloves all appear to be healthy, just frozen. I took a few cloves and planted them outside, and they have sprouted with vigorous growth, so the cloves are indeed still viable.

If I plant the other cloves now, what will happen this winter? The days are getting shorter now, so I highly doubt if they will bulb up before winter, or will they? And will they survive the winter okay?

Or if I wait until fall to plant them, will the shock of going through a fake winter (freezer) and then a very short growing season before another winter, will the shock bother them?

Or should I just wait until next spring before planting them, and if I do wait, will they survive frozen for well over a year and a half?

Thanks for any replies.

Even if you don't have experience with this, a best guess would be better than nothing.