Yield potential and agro-morphological characteristic of garlic (Allium sativum L.) varieties grown at the tropical highland of Sembalun, Indonesia

Abstract

Abstract Vegetative propagation is the most common garlic cultivation methods in Indonesia due to unsuitable tropical environment conditions for garlic to develop seed. Sembalun highland of West Nusa Tenggara Province is one of national bulb seed production center established in 2017. This study aimed to evaluate the agro-morphological characteristics of five garlic varieties grown at Sembalun Highland. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with six replication at Sembalun Bumbung Village from June to October 2018. All varieties were characterized from eighteens samples at a mature stage for plant weight and height, number of leaves, leaf length and shape, pseudostem diameter, bulb weight, polar and equatorial diameter of the bulb, number of cloves per bulb, the average weight of 10 cloves, plant habitus, the shape of mature bulb, bulb structure type, shape of the compound bulb in horizontal section, yield per hectare, and number of days to mature. All varieties were characterized by their morphological characteristics. Tawangmangu Baru and Lumbu kuning were morfologically close to Sangga Sembalun that native from Sembalun. The average yield of Sangga Sembalun was the highest (11.52 t/ha), followed by Lumbu Kuning (9.93 t/ha) and Tawangmangu Baru (9.89 t/ha), Lumbu Hijau (8.66 t/ha), and the lowest was Lumbu Putih (5.74 t/ha).