Quality differences among garlic ecotypes

Abstract

Garlic quality is comprised of bulb yield components and dry matter content Garlic has the highest dry matter content of all vegetable crops. Clove mass as a yield component, along with dry matter content, is the basis for determining garlic quality for food industry and seed production purposes alike. Predominant in our country’s garlic production are domestic ecotypes which give lower yields than cultivars resulting from breeding. In the present paper, we studied the divergence of garlic ecotypes by analyzing their dry matter content and clove size. The study lasted three years and involved 48 garlic ecotypes (18 autumn and 30 spring ones). Using hierarchical clustering, a very low variability of dry matter content was found in the autumn ecotypes. Differences in clove mass were very pronounced so four ecotype groups were formed that differed in the number of ecotypes as well as in the value of this trait. The spring garlic ecotypes were very heterogeneous in terms of bulb mass and dry matter content and were accordingly divided into six and five groups, respectively.