I plant garlic in the Fall also. Sometimes I plant a few cloves in the Spring, from the garlic that started to sprout in my pantry, but it is always smaller than Fall planted garlic.
I've gotten garlics like that -- smallish and just one homogeneous clove, not subdivided -- when my soil has been insufficiently amended (too compacted clayey, and not fertile enough). So that is another possibility to consider?
From what I have read, they sometimes look like that if they are under stress, too dry or not enough nutrients. I am planting it in the fall but this is the first time.
What color is the bloom? I have (i think) purple globe allium (garlic) that is about that size this year. I have bulblets to plant this fall, and still have some heads we have to find under the daylillies and get moved. Garlic is great when you have it! GPN
ETA: I researched the garlic I have, I am more than conviced I have elephant garlic rather than purple globe allium, due to the flower head that I remember on our plants this year. I wished I took pictures
I pulled a few more the other day. Some of them were the same as those first couple, just one big clove and others were fully formed but still a little small. The ones I have pulled so far have all been ones that I planted under my young plum tree. They probably got less water and more sun than the ones I planted in with my tomatoes which are still growing and just barely starting to get dry leaves. I think the little ones were that way due to a combination of how big the cloves I planted were and how much water they got. I'm still very happy to have garlic to use!
I know they say to plant your biggest cloves for bigger heads in the following year. What would happen if you planted large cloves from a single head like that? Would they produce a large head next year or would you get a lot of the same next year?????