evaluation of sprouting and physiological parameters of garlic in response to clove planting polarity

This study was conducted in autumn 2024 in the vegetable research greenhouse of the faculty of agriculture, shahid bahonar university of kerman, iran, to preliminarily evaluate and simulate the performance of a garlic planting machine designed at this university under different garlic clove planting polarities. the experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design with three main replications and twelve sub-replications. experimental treatments consisted of four different planting polarity orientations of garlic cloves, including positioning the plumule tip (apical meristem) upward, downward, to the left, and to the right during pot cultivation. the results indicated that planting cloves with the plumule tip oriented upward (uv) significantly increased sprouting percentage and sprouting rate, and resulted in the greatest pseudo-stem height, leaf dry matter content, number of cloves, clove diameter, and leaf relative water content. moreover, maintaining this planting polarity produced the highest leaf number as well as the greatest fresh and dry root weights. in contrast, treatments in which the plumule tip was oriented downward (dv) exhibited the lowest values for these traits. this study demonstrated that garlic planting with the correct orientation of the plumule or apical meristem upward has a pronounced positive effect on sprouting and growth parameters of garlic plants. these findings can contribute to the optimization of planting methods in both field and greenhouse conditions. therefore, mechanization through the design of planting machines that enable vertical placement with the meristem oriented upward can accelerate precise garlic clove planting and improve garlic yield and quality.