EVALUATION OF AGRONOMIC CHARACTERS OF GARLIC (Allium sativum L.) BULBILS
Ni Wayan Hari Sulastiningsih, Nazly Aswani and Catur Hermanto
Indonesia Vegetable Research Institute, Jalan Tangkuban Parahu No.517, Lembang, Bandung Barat
e-mail : naz.aswa[at]gmail.com
Abstract
Garlic production is practiced vegetatively through cloves/bulbs. However, naturally, garlic also produces bulblets/bulbils in stem or scape (top set). The agronomic characters of this tiny bulb-like form have been rarely discussed despite its potential for soil-borne disease-free garlic production. This research carried out in March 2019 was aimed to evaluate some of plant morphological characters from garlic bulbils. These bulbils were harvested from Indonesia garlic variety known as Lumbu Hijau. Completely Randomized Block Design was applied throughout 4 treatment combinations e.g immersion duration and dose of growth hormone with 3 replications. Seedling percentage, plant height, number of leaves, fresh weight, dry weight, bulb height, number of cloves and number of bulbils were evaluated. Although the result showed that all treatments were not significant for all characters, they showed a fairly high seedling percentage (69.33-81.33%). Plant height measured on 75 days after planting (DAP) ranged between 26.99-30.75 cm with 3-4 number of leaves. Plants were harvested on 120 DAP where fresh weight ranged 2.9-3.1 g/sample. After two months of air-dried, dry weight was measured for 1.9-2.4 g/sample. Bulb diameter ranged 20.40-21.60 mm and bulb height ranged 15.31–16.18 mm with 4-5 cloves per bulb. This article also noted a bulbil-to-bulbils cycle since a little number of bulbils found within the stem of sample plants. This result indicated that more agronomy studies need to be done for improving the quality of bubils as a promising alternative in garlic production.
Keywords: bulbils, agronomic character, garlic seed, garlic production
Topic: Crop and Crop Management