Agronomic performance, flowering, physicochemical characteristics and genetic divergence in garlic accessions from Brazil

The evaluation of garlic accessions is important in the search for superior, adapted and flowering cultivars for botanical seed production. The objective of this work was to assess the agronomic performance, flowering capacity and genetic divergence of 13 experimental garlic accessions bred in Brazil. The experiment was laid out as a completely randomized block design with four replications at Lavras, Minas Gerais, Brazil from May to October 2018. A total of 11 accessions were experimental and two were control varieties, Quitéria and Caçador. The control varieties are commercially produced in Brazil and the 11 experimental accessions are elite. The emergence, emergence speed index, plant height, percentage of overcrowding, average weight of commercial bulb, number of bulbs per bulb, total yield, commercial yield, flowering percentage, length and diameter, soluble solids, titratable acidity, pH and ratio soluble solids and titratable acidity of the exhaust floral were measured. The data obtained were submitted to analysis of variance (p≤0.05), and when significant the effects of genotypes, their means grouped by the Scott-Knott test. We also proceeded to study genetic divergence through multivariate analysis, adopting the canonical variables technique. Variance analysis indicated significant differences between genotypes for emergence speed index, flowering percentage, floral scape diameter, floral scape length and commercial yield. The highest commercial yield and flowering percentage were observed in RAL (8.82 t ha-1) and DDR 6024 (80.92%) access, respectively, which differed only from commercial cultivars (Quitéria and Caçador). The greatest genetic divergence was verified between experimental accessions and commercial cultivars. The experimental accessions presented flowering potential and botanical seed production in the studied region