Combination of genotype, plant spacing, and plant density for improving growth and yield of garlic national varieties

Abstract

Abstract Indonesia has been the largest garlic importing country for decades since the productivities and qualities of national garlic varieties failed to meet domestic demand. Breeding garlic for higher yield conventionally is almost impracticable due to its flowering hinderance, meanwhile the biotechnological approach needs longer time to implement the result. Thus, the most feasible improvement might be done through agronomic aspects. This research was aimed to search for alternative ways in cultivation techniques to improve garlic production. The research was conducted from June 2020 until February 2021 on IVEGRI” s Margahayu experimental station, Lembang, West Java. A split-split plot design was laid out for the combination between genotype as the main plot, plant spacing as the subplot, and plant density (number of seed cloves planted on each planting hole) as the sub-sub plot. The results showed that among all characters observed, the significant interactions between these three factors occurred only in the number of stomata, and seed bulb diameter (4 months after harvested). Meanwhile, the significant interactions either between variety and plant spacing or variety and plant density were recorded in the percentage of the 1st week population, fresh weight per sample, weight after curing per sample, dry weight (4 months after harvested) per sample and weight loss per sample. Pseudo stem diameter was proved to be affected by the interaction only between variety and plant density significantly, meanwhile bulb diameter after curing was significantly affected either by variety or plant spacing. However, the height of dried bulb and chlorophyll content (SPAD value) showed highly significant differences only among the varieties.