Garlic is cultivated during the cold weather period, which is also the dry season in Brazilian producing regions. Frequent irrigations are therefore needed to supply enough water to the fields. In addition to irrigation, organic fertilization in garlic is a routine practice, with many producers making it the only source of nutrients to plants. Thus, this work was carried out to evaluate the effect of different water levels and organic matter in the production and quality of garlic. The experiment was performed in the greenhouse at the Center of Agrarian Sciences, Federal University of Paraíba, in Areia county, from May to October 1995, the cool and dry season. The experiment followed a complete randomized block design with treatments distributed in a factorial 4 x 4 scheme. The first factor corresponded to water levels in soil (65, 75, 85 and l00% of the field capacity) and the second factor corresponded to amounts of tanned bovine manure (0, 20, 30, and 40 t/ha). The experiment was conducted with three replications and plots of six plants, spaced 0.30 m x 0.10 m, using cv. Dourados. It was observed that plant length increased with water levels, reaching 44.0 cm and 46.0 cm 60 days after planting (dap), and 45.0 cm and 47.5 cm 90 dap, for 85% and 100% water availability levels in soil, respectively. The maximum bulb weight (14.85 g) was reached with 95.15% of available water in soil, while maximum total production reached 4,604 kg/ha, with 97.93% of available water in soil. Each percentage increase in available water in the soil corresponded to an increase of 80.35 kg/ha of commercial bulbs and a reduction of 10.71 kg/ha of non-marketable bulbs. Neither the use of bovine manure, nor its interaction with levels of water in soil significantly influenced any of the characteristics.
Allium sativum L.; plant height; average bulb weight; yield
