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Title: Phenotypic Characteristics Of Ten Garlic Cultivars Grown At Different North American Locations

Author
item Volk, Gayle
item STERN, DAVID - FIRENDS OF GARLIC

Submitted to: HortScience
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/19/2009
Publication Date: 8/1/2009
Citation: Volk, G.M., Stern, D. 2009. Phenotypic Characteristics Of Ten Garlic Cultivars Grown At Different North American Locations. HortScience. 44:1238-1247.

Interpretive Summary: Garlic bulbs (Allium sativum L.) bulbs are marketed for their health and culinary values. It is difficult to identify garlic cultivars or classes grown under diverse conditions as a result of their highly elastic environmental responses, particularly relating to size, color and patterning of bulbs. Ten diverse garlic cultivars were grown at twelve locations throughout the United States and Canada as part of a project to identify traits that are remain constant regardless of growth location. Traits such as the presence of a central stalk, clove arrangement, number of bulbils or topsets, bulbil size, bulbil color, number of cloves, clove weight, clove color, and clove skin tightness were generally stable for each cultivar regardless of production location and conditions. Several cultivars also had higher levels of total phenolics than the other cultivars. These results provide information to garlic collection managers to assist in cultivar identification and description efforts.

Technical Abstract: Garlic (Allium sativum L.) bulbs are marketed for their health and culinary values. It is difficult to identify garlic cultivars or classes grown under diverse conditions as a result of their highly elastic environmental responses, particularly relating to skin color and clove arrangement of bulbs. Ten diverse garlic cultivars were grown at twelve locations throughout the United States and Canada as part of a project to identify traits that are phenotypically stable regardless of growth location. The phenotypic traits of scape production (hardneck or softneck), clove arrangement, number of bulbils, bulbil size, bulbil color, number of cloves, clove weight, clove skin color, and clove skin tightness were generally stable for each cultivar regardless of production location and conditions. Total phenolics were assayed for the 10 cultivars grown at each location. Cultivars Purple glazer, Siberian, Chesnok red, and Spanish roja had relatively high levels of total phenolics (0.46-0.60 mg gallic acid equivalents/g fresh weight (FW) compared to the overall range (0.31-0.60 mg gallic acid equivalents/g FW). These results provide information to garlic collection managers and producers to assist in cultivar identification, selection, and description efforts for specific health and culinary values.