Bulbils are not same as cloves. Bulbils come up in a 'flower head' of a garlic bulb and they are only just a bit of bigger than grain of rice..that's why the growth to a bulb takes so much longer.
Where as if you plant 'undersize' clove..you do get useable size but small bulb in a first year.
Generally you would choose to plant your biggest size cloves to grow into bulbs as those larger cloves will grow into larger bulbs.
So, say I have 5 smallish cloves. I plant those and get five garlic bulbs which turn the five cloves into fifty. Are you saying those fifty new cloves will be bigger that the five planted the year before?......
Umm..yes. If you plant 'undersize' clove..you do get useable size but small bulb in a first year or there is also possibility that the you get cloveless bulb. If the clove is been too small to form into cloves it just grow bigger and will devide when planted again following growing season. But yes..generally each generation will be bigger untill full size is reached. Generally you would choose to plant your biggest size cloves to grow into bulbs as those larger cloves will grow into larger bulbs but if you do use the whole lot of variable size cloves from one bulb..resulting mature bulbs will be variable in size too.
I hope my anwer will clear you thoughts.
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