Emergence of Garlic (Allium sativum L.) as Influenced by Low Storage Temperature and Gibberellic Acid Treatments

The cost of garlic cloves together with inconsistent emergence due to dormancy issues which needs rest or dormant period of more than three months, has contributed to the reduction of garlic production cycle in a year. Thus, pre-planting garlic clove treatment with Gibberellic acid (GA3) plant hormone and cold temperature storage duration are an important agronomic concern for dormancy breaking of local garlic (Allium sativum L.) variety. Greenhouse experiment was conducted in the spring cropping season of 2013 to investigate the effect of GA3 concentration (0, 125, 250 and 375 ppm) and cold storage (7°C) durations (10, 20, and 30 days) on emergence of local garlic cultivar. The treatments were laid out in factorial arrangement with three replications using completely randomized design. The interaction effect of GA3 and cold storage duration significantly increased on emergence percentage (96.66%), emergence rate (1.09) and number of sprouted cloves 0.447(100%) at GA3 125 ppm for 20 days of cold storage duration. In conclusion the result of the experiment revealed that treatment GA3 125 ppm with 20 days of cold storage duration is required for attaining optimum emergence performance of the local garlic variety in Haramaya Eastern Ethiopia.