Chemical Science Review and Letters ISSN 2278-6783 Chem Sci Rev Lett 2019, 8 (32), 247-251 Article CS112050061 247 Research Article Evaluation of Long Day Garlic (Allium sativum L.) Ecotypes For Growth, Yield and Quality Performance Raj Narayan, Arun Kishor, Mukesh S. Mer, Ravindra Kumar Singh and Vivek Kumar Tiwari Central Institute of Temperate Horticulture Regional Station- Mukteshwar 263 138, Nainital (Uttarakhand) Introduction Garlic (Allium sativum L.) is an important spice and condiment crop grown throughout the country as well as world. It is one of the most important bulb vegetable crop which have been used since ancient for its culinary, medicinal and health benefits [1]. It is the second most important cultivated bulb crop after onion grown in 0.30 million hectare area which produced 1.72 million tonne bulbs with the average productivity 5.73 tonne/ha [2]. In Asia, people use fresh leaves of garlic as salad, and pickle is also prepared from garlic cloves [3]. It has higher nutritive value than other bulb crops [4] and also good export potential as fresh bulb as well as in the dehydrated form [5]. Besides, garlic has several medicinal values such as antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antiprotozol, anti oxidant and anticancer properties [6]. Large quantities of this crop are exported to earn foreign exchange and it is also used in pharmaceuticals industries because of its great medicinal values. The lack of sexuality in garlic limits the increase of variability that is useful for breeding for economically important traits, such as tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress, earliness, yield and quality [7]. A large number of ecotypes have been established over time in various areas of cultivation. Considerable morphological and biochemical variations between and within ecotypes are been established [8]. To meet the domestic requirement and fulfill the export demand, selection of suitable variety for growing under different agronomic condition is necessary. Due to vegetative propagated crop, variation in garlic occurs only through random or induced mutation and/or somaclonal variation and new cultivars are bred by clonal selection, induced mutations, somaclonal variation or genetic engineering. In mid and high hills of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir etc., the long day type strains are to be developed/selected for getting high yield and quality. Very scanty work has been done on the evaluation, selection and development of long day type garlic varieties/strains. Hence, with a view to develop/select good quality high yielding long day type garlic varieties/lines for growing under mid and high hills, different lines of various parts of the country received under All India Network Research Project (Onion and Garlic) were evaluated for their growth, yield and quality parameters at ICAR- Central Institute of temperate Horticulture Regional Station- Mukteshwar, Nainital (Uttarakhand) during rabi extended summer 2016-17. Abstract Twenty four diverse genotypes of long day garlic were evaluated which exhibited significant differences for growth, yield and quality parameters viz., plant height, number of leaf, leaf length, polar and equatorial diameter of bulbs, average bulb weight, number of clove/bulb, total soluble solids and total bulb yield per plot. Among the lines, highest yielding genotype i.e. G-408 AP recorded maximum bulb yield (3.55 Kg/plot and 157.93 q/ha). The genotypes G-408 AP, CITH-G-10 and VLG-2 recorded bulb weight of 44.40 g, 42.60 g and 36.40 g, respectively. Maximum TSS of 42.50 0 brix was recorded in genotype UHF-G-12-2 followed by Selection 10-3 (41.50 0 brix) and G-417 (40.70 0 brix). Presence of wide range of variation of mean and coefficient of variations depicted the chance of improvement in the present genotypes through clonal selection and later on could be stabilized and utilized as new varieties for the region. The line G- 408 A.P. has potential of highest bulb yield under long day condition of Kumaon hills of Uttarakhand. The genotypes under study showed sufficient genotypic variability, heritability and genetic advance for most of the traits especially economic trait i.e. bulb yield. Apart from it, the significant and positive correlation coefficients were also exists between the traits under study. Hence, there is chance of improvement in the genotypes through clonal selection and better variability in various traits could be developed through clonal selection for further improvement of the crop/genotype. Keywords: Characters, Bulb yield, Garlic, Genotype, Quality *Correspondence Author: Raj Narayan Email: rajnarayan882013@gmail.com, rajnarayan70@yahoo.co.in