GENETIC VARIABILITY AND GENETIC ADVANCE FROM SELECTION IN MUNICIPAL GARLIC (Allium sativum L.) FOR ECONOMIC AND QUALITY TRAITS

Ten Egyptian garlic clones were assessed for genetic variability and genetic advance for yield and some quality characteristics during four seasons [first season (S1), second season (S2), third season (S3) and fourth season (S4) in 2016-2017, 2017-2018, 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 respectively] at Vegetable Research Farm, Horticultural Research Institute and Crops Technology Research Department, Food Technology Institute, Agricultural Research Center (ARC), Kaha, Dokki and Giza Egypt. All genotypes were collected from various governorates in Egypt, i.e. Elmnofia (Ba.1), Elminia (Ba.2), El sharkia (Ba.3), El giza (Ba.4), El fayoum a (Ba.5), El fayoum b (Ba.6), Benisuif (Ba.7), Sohag (Ba.8), kalubia (Ba.9) and Asuit (Ba.10). The results showed that clone Ba.7 produced the highest bulb diameter, dry weight of leaves, bulb and plant leaves weight, total cured yield, as well as, clove weight, bulb weight and diameter after curing. Clone Ba.10 produced the tallest plants and also, contains the highest content of pungency content, followed by clone Ba.2. Estimated coefficient of variance (CV %) values indicated that most of clones had good homogeneity in all studied characters. The large portion of phenotypic variance (σ2p) was due to the genetic variance (σ2g). High genetic advance in all traits indicated that the observed significant phenotypic differences among the studied genotypes are of genetic nature and there are small environmental effects on the phenotypic variation. Therefore, simple selection can lead to improvement in these characters. The selected Beni suif (Ba.7) genotype had homogeneity, high productivity and high quality, so, it could be considered promising new clone of garlic.