Bulbils, as in the flower head? What is the purpose of growing those out? I never have allowed those to plump out because it sucks energy from the garlic, and because by that time the tender scapes have become too tough to eat. But if there is a reason for it, I might let some grow out.

and I never thought of a perennial garden bed, but I suppose since garlic can grow wild of course a perennial bed is possible, lol. That could change some of my notions for the better.

I have no idea what Asiatic or turban garlic is. I do know what hardneck is, that's what I grow. When I find good garlic from local markets, I keep some for seed stock and grow it out. I had some named garlic originally, but got something wicked in my raised beds last year and it funked most of it, so I had to start over by collecting local garlic. I'd love to order real garlic, but I wouldn't know where to start with picking varieties and can't afford it anyway, lol.

Bulbils can dramatically increase one's stock since there are generally many more of them than cloves. Also bulbils avoid getting polluted with some of the soil born viruses. The draw backs are smaller bulbs on those plants where the bulbils are allowed to develop and the need for something like two or three years additional to make decent sized bulbs from the bulbils. You can also get bulbils shipped out of Canada much easier than the close-to-impossibility of importing bulbs. The smaller young bulbs from bulbils will produce harvestable scapes for you long before they grow out big enough for you to cook with their bulbs. It is probably the quickest cheapest way to get lots of scape producing plants.

FWIW there is nothing wrong with using your own collections for your own stock. If it aint broke no need to fix it. I do a combination of collection and boughten seed stock. My favorite is Music, of the type of hardneck called porcelain. There are a lot of reference materials on the internet if you want to read up on garlic.

I do not know where you are. But garlic scapes are sold in many Asian markets. Even beyond the seasons somehow.

With scapes, most of the garlic bulbs are much smaller. They are not even suitable to grow good scapes next year. And they never grow to round, but just small bulbs.

I live in the middle of farming country RedSun.. closest Asian market is an hour or two away at best, if I knew if there were Asian markets in the closest cities.

I think I might take OldDutch's advice about bulbils and a perennial bed. I have spaces out on the back 40 that I've already been laying out wild asparagus beds and planning on putting in fruit beds. Why not garlic too? I'm willing to use a nice chunk of dirt for the sake of growing a lot of scapes since it sounds like I don't actually have to give up prime garden space to do it. And I'm a patient gardener, so if I start this spring and have scapes, wonderful- if I need to let some go to seed, that's fine too. If I need to let the whole bed sit till next year too to get good production, well then that will have to do :)

OldDutch is very knowledgeable. If you want to use bulbils, only use the large ones, like Rocamboles. But bulbils won't send out good sized scapes.

As for perennial bed, the small bulbs left in the ground are weak and won't send good sized scapes either.

So it all depends on what you plan to do. If you have to spend $20/lb to get the seed garlic, then it is not economical to grow just for scapes.

If you have your own garlic seed collection, you can certainly allocate a portion of your bed for scapes, and use the small bulbs in the kitchen. But do not use the small bulbs as seeds since they are just too small....

There isn't much available for spring planting to produce scapes, although you can get started plants to produce garlic based scallions, which you might well like. For them you can use any garlic, even the softnecks. You are going to harvest them young and green anyway, pretty much like you would green onion scallions. If you family likes the scapes, they should definitely like the gallions. Like for onion scallions these can also be planted thicker than you would to harvest mature bulbs. For scapes though you pretty much have to use fall planted hardnecks. Next fall you can plant a specific scape bed, that can be much more closely planted than you would for the bulbs. The scapes will be some little bit smaller, but you can increase the volume this way quite a bit. Leave it and then the next spring you can harvest spring green garlic shoots for gallions, since each bulb will send up a shoot for each clove giving you a clump of gallion shoots. Thin them and you should also get scapes from the survivors later in the year to augment the scapes from you regular bulb beds.

I'd love to try all sorts of different combinations, but I am limited. 40x120 city lot and all that with no back 40 of any kind. Garlic can be handled a number of different ways sorta kinda depending on what you want out of it. I have a feral that took care of itself on a clay soil in zone 4b for 30 years, before I started to redomesticate it. A very forgiving and adaptable species by and large.

Thank you again for all the advice guys. I might try some spring scallions, that sounds like a good idea. I will be extra patient and hold off on a scape bed till this fall though. It will be difficult to restrain myself, lol- but it sounds like it will be worth the wait.

I am going to add something here that is my opinion but not universally accepted. IMO spring planted cloves can produce nearly full sized bulbs and scapes if cold treated before planting. IIRC that would be a 40/40 or 40 days at 40 degrees which can be done in a refrigerator, provided there are no ethyline producing fruits, etc. also in that refrigerator.

There is an old family old wives' tale in my family to plant potatoes on Good Friday, which this year is only a little past the middle of March and very likely our ground here will still be frozen. But you can plant onion plants and spring garlic bulbs about the same time as you plant your potatoes. Cold treatment for that would start about 40 days before ground thaw and can go on beyond 40 days for some little while at least with little problem.

I am thinking of getting one of those cheap apartment sized frigs just for that. I certainly have a corner of the kitchen and an outlet I can devote to that. All the different ways one can handle garlics just has me in some sort of awe!

One other thing: I found a relatively easy way to handle small garlic bulbs with their very small cloves. Simply break them up and strip off the dry wrappers. Then put the unpeeled cloves directly into the garlic press figuring at least two times the volume you would normally use for peeled cloves (IOW load the press up good) and just press them that way. I always reload the wrappers and give those a good second crush and then discard what is left. I do not like to peel tiny garlic cloves and now I simply don't. So I use a whole very small bulb instead of one large clove and throw some little bit of wrapper out. Works for me. Did I say how much I dislike peeling garlic cloves!

Ya know, I never thought about using tiny garlic that way. I've often done the "break up the head and shake it around in two bowls held together like one big ball" scenario. It does get the papers off, but it can be a mess to do so. Good way to do a lot of garlic at once though.
I'm going to have to try the garlic press next time, sounds way less messy.

And back to growing.. no problem with the chilling. Right now my solarium is the temps of a big fridge. Sucks to work in, but great for keeping food and such chilled just right. If it gets too warm, I can always toss the garlic into the real fridge.

LOL I keep my garlic press in the drainer at the sink, ready to use and then quickly rinse it out and back in the drainer. What I have is a real cheap one, and I think nearly any one of them will do for this. I think I have finally found a relatively easy use those very small bulbs with their tiny cloves. Also for the little cloves on the inside of the softneck bulbs, too little to replant, and too little to mess around with individually in the kitchen.