The seeds will make small garlic. It's really better to plant a clove in the fall. I have never heard of planting the 'tops'...

Check the other recent post regarding the same exact subject, question, and answers.. The tops may get new garlic, but are not going to give you big cloves in the ground, they must be removed BEFORE they start forming the bulbs. These are called scapes, like I mentioned in the other recent thread. I will not go into detail again, just because its a very recent subject that is easily found on this forum.

Thank you both for your responses.
I did a search on the herb and the alluim forum but I wasn't coming up with anything about replanting the tops. Maybe I was typing in the wrong words.
Thanks,

Diana

The tops are NOT replanted, and as mentioned here, they will produce very small cloves next year if they are planted. The tops should be cut off with the stalks (scapes) and the stalks can be eaten as well as the tops. What your wanting is big bulbs of garlic, and if its donne the way you thought, you would never see any big cloves or big bulbs, even in the original soil planted locations. As mentioned before, remove the tops (scapes) before they open. Allow the garlic in soil to have its leaves die out soon after cutting off the scapes, then you dig up the SOIL bulbs and dry them for use later. If you were to want subsiquent garlic from the dug up plants, you would use a few of the biggest dug up bulbs for planting new garlic rows in fall. The ones you buy as seeds for growing your own are selected for their large size and cultured more for growing than for harvesting. This is one reason planting store bought cloves doesn't usually give you much in return. If these store bought garlic from the produce section are soft neck, and they are being planted in a Z6 or lower, they will not survive a winter.

There are many types of garlic, and its difficult to give accurate advice without knowing the type of garlic you're dealing with. I grow a hard neck garlic that doesn't produce blooms and seeds at the top...it produces garlic "bulblets" that are pea-sized or larger. With the garlic that I grow, you most certainly will produce a clove of garlic next year from planting the bulblets. A pea-sized bulblet planted this year will produce a ping-pong ball sized collection of cloves next year. Breaking open that all of cloves and planting each one individually will produce a fist-sized or larger garlic clove the next year.

Bulblets to big cloves in two years.
The other folks at gardenweb have nicknamed my garlic "walking garlic" as it does form cloves at both ends of the scapes. It lives through the winters here in zone 6.

I'm sorry that I can't give you any personal experience advice on whether the seeds produced at the tops of other types of garlic.

Garlic is hardy and will grow down to Z3 if planted early enough in fall. Usually allowing the scapes and bulblets to form at the tops will take a lot of energy from the main bulb in soil so youy get small bulbs and cloves. For the largest sized garlic cloves, removing the scapes is the best way to go if you want big loves. According to most suppliers, even though there are many strains and colors, there are only two distinct types, soft neck and hard neck. Hard neck does very well in Z6 or lower, while soft neck does better in Z7 or higher. My garlic growing has been for several years now, and even though I planted a few random 'sprouts' from some missed cloves last fall, all have now died. They had very small greens, and survived this past winter, but these died out even before they sent up any scapes. I suspect that because they are third generation leftovers, they tend to become very stunted and weak, compared to garlic grown for its cloves (sets) to replant. Usually garlic needs only a single growing seaon, planted in fall, and harvested the next summer.

several years ago I saw a garlic plant that had its cloves above ground on the tops of the plants like artichokes. I have never seen this plant since and would like to know if they are still around, what are they called, and where can I find them to plant. I have been given a name of "Walking Garlic" but can find nothing on this.