Another question about garlic (separating cloves)

I was on the veg plot yesterday and noticed two garlic plants that I must have left in the ground after lifting the crop last year. When I lifted the two plants, they both simply fell apart into individual cloves as would have normally be planted.

It now has me thinking about how garlic would grow in the wild, without the intervention of man to seperate the cloves. Has anyone tried a 'just leave them in the ground and see what happens' approach to reproducing the crop, and if so, how did it work out?

 

No one knows the result Eddie

 

I shall if I leave some in place at the end of this year.

 

If it's a single shoot it should develop into a bulb of garlic (unless it's a bulbil from Elephant Garlic, which will first grow into a round, then a bulb the year after). If they're in a location where they can grow on, I'll leave them where they are, and if there's more than one I'll carefully pull the others up (and use as garlicky 'spring onions' - and hens will eat the leafy tops), leaving just one in the ground to develop. If left in bunches it would most probably stunt development, rather like not thinning parsnips, etc.

So I've never tried transplanting them, as I've just used any pulled up as a spring crop.


P.S. I've got dozens of these coming up right now.