I pulled the box out yesterday and planted them. They were really in pretty good shape, despite their long storage. About a third of the cloves were either dessicated or mushy, but there were three or four dozen decent ones left. I really hadn't thought they would do that well, but I think it helped that I left them in the box, which protected them from the humid refridgerator air.
Now I get to see what will happen. When I posed this question in the forum last fall, no one really knew what might happen. Someone suggested I might just get one big clove from each. That will work. If so, I can always replant the big cloves this October, and I'll have 2013 Music garlic.
Here's something else I was thinking while I planted them. What if I just left them there and never dug them up? What would garlic do on its own if just left in the same spot for two seasons? It seems like it would do the same thing as any other bulb, like an iris, and just grow again, with a massive bulb the following spring. Has anyone tried this, accidentally or otherwise?
I'll need to first see whether they survive. On the plus side, if they haven't come up by the end of May, I can use the spot for something else, like corn, so all the experiment cost me is the effort in planting
). Another downside is that the ground would have settled and not be as loose, and you wouldn't be adding amendments deeper in the ground as at initial planting time.
I wound up evening out my rows with some leftover third-generation Albertsons softneck cloves.