tGarlic (Allium sativum L.) has been long favored as a seasoning and as a seasonal vegetable all over theworld. However, the production of fresh garlic scapes and bulbs is extremely limited by the climateand region, especially the temperature and photoperiod, under natural production conditions, and theuncertainty of the vernalization characteristic of garlic has been a key restriction to the developmen-tal regulation of bolting and bulbing. A thorough understanding of the vernalization conditions for garlicgrowth should improve our knowledge of the bolting and bulbing processes. This research was conductedto assess the response of the clove to chilling treatment and further demonstrate whether chilling treat-ment on garlic clove could substitute the vernalization requirements for garlic plant. Before planting, thecloves (cv. G064) were subjected to low temperature (5◦C, 10◦C, 15◦C) for different durations (20 days,40 days or 60 days) for chilling treatment. The control cloves or plants remained in the 20–22◦C regimethroughout. Then, the plant growth, bolting and garlic yield were evaluated during field growing. Theresults indicate that pre-plant chilling treatment significantly affects garlic plant growth and develop-ment, and could act as the vernalization and enable the garlic plant to bolt without undergoing chillingduring plant growth. Lower temperatures and longer treatment durations significantly enhanced the leafelongation, shortened the growth period (5◦C or 60 days), promoted the rate of one-clove bulbs (5◦C or40 days), stimulated bolting and increased the bolting rate (10◦C) compared with the control. However,the bolting rate and low-temperature treatment did not follow a simple linear relation, as lower temper-atures (5◦C) or higher temperatures (15◦C) were not beneficial to garlic bolting. It was found that garlicplants subjected to a treatment of 10◦C for 20/40 days or 5◦C for 20 days had comparatively higher bolt-ing rates. Nevertheless, the garlic bulb yield and mean bulb weight decreased significantly as a functionof the increasing period of the chilling treatment compared with the control. The treatment of 5◦C for 20days had the greatest yield among all the treatments, second only to the control. These findings providestrong evidence for the potential cultivation of garlic of various cultivars in various climates or seasons,making off-season cultivation possible. Other researchers could use a similar methodology to shortenthe period needed until harvest or even produce desirable scapes and bulbs in the warm season.© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.