Evaluation of Fall Garlic Ecotypes for Yield and Quality

Abstract

Garlic is a species whose utilization is based on its nutritive values and medicinal properties. The secondary center of this crop's origin is the Mediterranean, which is where the earliest written records of garlic use and cultivation come from as well. Serbian garlic production is characterized by the use of local ecotypes and significant acreages and low yields of the crop. The Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops in Novi Sad has managed to collect a large number of garlic ecotypes, which represent a significant body of genetic resources. Determination of the breeding value for a given trait requires not only a continual collection of genotypes but their characterization and evaluation as well. The present paper describes the results of a 7-year piece of research studying yield components and quality in 18 fall garlic genotypes (13 ecotypes and 5 clones). Hierarchical cluster analysis was used to find similarities and differences among the genotypes, while the interaction between the genotypes and traits was depicted on a biplot. Genotypes from the first group had the largest-sized bulbs, as indicated by their position on the biplot. The genotypes P-2 and K-8/23 had negative values of object coordinates for all the traits under study and were placed in the group with the lowest bulb weight and dry matter yield in the dendrogram. The second group was the most numerous one. The distance of the genotypes from this group from the origin of the biplot was indicative of their distance in the dendrogram as well.