Variability of characteristics of garlic (Allium sativum L.) ecotypes

We studied the variability of characteristics of ecotypes of winter and spring garlic collected in the Vojvodina Province, the main production region in Yugoslavia. The ecotypes were analyzed for variability of nine characteristics: height of the aboveground plant part, number of leaves, number of outer leaves of the bulb, bulb shape, bulb mass, clove mass, number of cloves, dry matter content and yield. Mean values and variability indicators were calculated for all characteristics. One-dimensional analysis of variance was used to assess the significance of variability sources. The F-ratio showed that the winter and spring ecotypes were significantly variable with respect to the number of outer leaves of the bulb, bulb mass,. clove mass, number of cloves, dry matter content and yield. Highly significant variabilities were found within the ecotypes of spring garlic for the height of the aboveground part and the number of leaves. Structure of variability sources was determined by the multivariate analysis, the method of principal components analysis (PCA). Data were interpreted on the basis of seven principal components, which covered 99.60% of the total variance in the winter ecotypes and 99.75% of the total variance in the spring ecotypes. Bulb mass and yield, which were highly interrelated, had the highest association with the first principal component. Clove mass and number had high association with the second principal component. The remaining principal components were associated with individual characteristics whose variances took high percentages of the total variation.