Evaluating yield quality and quantity of garlic as affected by different farming systems and garlic clones

In order to study the effects of different farming systems and garlic (Allium sativum L.) clones on yield quality and quantity of garlic, an experiment was conducted with split plot arrangement with three completely randomized blockes in the 2005 growing season at the experimental research station of Shahid Beheshti University at Zirab, north of Iran. Two factors were involved in the experiment: farming systems in three levels (intensive, conventional and organic farming), as main plots and garlic clones in three levels (Atoo, Hamedani and Khorassani) as sub-plots. The studied factors in this experiment consisted of leaf number, LAI, stem height and diameter, bulb yield, weight of bulbs, number of cloves, weight of cloves and level of allicin. Results showed that the farming systems had significant effect (p<0.05) on LAI, number of plant and bulb yield, but the effect on the other factors was not significant. The highest and lowest bulb yields were obtained in intensive (9.5 ton ha(-1)) and organic (7.4 ton ha(-1)) systems, respectively. All of the top factors were significantly (p< or =0.01) affected by garlic clones. Maximum and minimum yields were obtained from Hamedani, Atoo (9.2 ton ha(-1)) and Virani (7.1 ton ha(-1)) clones, respectively. Level of allicin was not significantly affected by farming systems but, differences among garlic clones were significant. Maximum and minimum allicin yields were obtained from Hamedan (5.96 mg g(-1)) and Virani (4.52 mg g(-1)) clones, respectively. As a result, however, organic farming systems can not influence the yield in short term, but can increase it by applying crop rotation, use of organic fertilizer and cover crops in the long term.