Regulation of Garlic Bulb Dormancy
Bizuayehu Desta *
Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences, Debre Berhan University, P.O. Box 445, Debre Berhan, Ethiopia.
Netsanet Tena
Department of Plant Sciences, College of Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences, Debre Berhan University, P.O. Box 445, Debre Berhan, Ethiopia.
Getachew Amare
Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences, Debre Berhan University, P.O. Box 445, Debre Berhan, Ethiopia.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Garlic bulb dormancy is the final stage of bulb existence helping to maintain bulbs as organs of vegetative reproduction under non-favorable growth environments. Bulbs of garlic (Allium sativum L.) are dormant and will not sprout. As the time of postharvest storage is prolonged, dormancy of bulb is broken and sprout growth commences. Dormancy breaking and beginning of sprout growth of garlic bulb is accompanied by several biochemical changes, most of which are deterimental to the nutritional and processing qualities of garlics. Temperature and gibberellins control mechanisms have been proposed to play a significant role in bulb dormancy regulation. In this review, low temperature and gibberellic acid responsible for bulb dormancy breaking have been reviewed and discussed.
Keywords: Dormancy, garlic, gibberellic acid, low temperature, sprouting