A study was carried out in Diamantina, Minas Gerais State, Brazil, during the 2007 season, to evaluate the agronomic characteristics of garlic cultivars. The experimental design was of randomized blocks, with four replications. Treatments were garlic cultivars 'Gigante do Núcleo', 'Gigante de Lavínia', 'Gigante Roxo', 'Gigante Roxão', 'Chinês Real', 'Chinês São Joaquim', 'Cateto Roxo', 'Cateto Roxo PfLv' (free of virus), 'Hozan', 'Amarante', 'Peruano', 'Caturra', 'Gravatá' and 'Amarante Gouveia'. 'Hozan', 'Gigante de Lavínia', 'Chinês Real' and 'Peruano' presented the best vegetative growth in the initial stage, with higher plant height values up to 60 days. Regarding the number of cloves/bulb, the cultivars 'Gravatá' (16.5), 'Cateto Roxo PfLv' (15.75), 'Cateto Roxo' (15.25) and 'Chinês Real' (15.25) presented higher values than the other evaluated cultivars. 'Gigante de Lavínia' presented the highest marketable yield (12.61 t ha-1), followed by the cultivars 'Gravatá' (10.87 t ha-1), 'Chinês Real' (10.65 t ha-1), 'Cateto Roxo Pf Lv' (10.63 t ha-1) and 'Caturra' (9.68 t ha-1). The cultivar 'Amarante Gouveia', presented a yield of 7.50 t ha-1, which was inferior to the national average yield (8.47 t ha-1).
Allium sativum; Jequitinhonha Valley; yield; cultivars
