The field experiment was conducted during the two successive winter seasons of 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 at the Experimental Farm , Sids Horticulture Research Station, Agriculture Research Center, Giza, Egypt. Two garlic cultivars (Eggaseed 1 and Sids 40) were selected for this study. Pre-sowing treatments of cloves were: cooling at 5OC for 10 or 20 days, GA3 soaking at 5 ppm for 12 or 24 hrs., water soaking for 12 or 24 hrs. or without treatment ( control plants ). The obtained results indicated that:
1- Sids 40 cultivar was superior than cv. Eggaseed 1 in regard to plant height, leaf number / plant, fresh weight of vegetative parts and bulb dry matter percentage. On the other hand , there were insignificant differences between cv. Egaseed 1 and Sids 40 concerning the percentage germination after 30 days and 45 days from planting, fresh bulb weight , cured bulb weight , cured bulb diameter, bulbing ratio, fresh and cured yield .
2- Seed cloves treated at low temperature of 5OC for 10 to 20 days before planting gave the highest values of germination percent after 30 and 45 days from planting and earlier in bulb initiation and maturity but resulted in the lowest yield and yield quality compared to other treatments. Soaking garlic cloves in either water or GA3 at 5 ppm for 24 hrs. proved to be effective in improving almost all the previously mentioned parameters.
3–The interaction of soaking treatments GA3 at 5 ppm for 24 hrs. with either cvs. Sids 40 or Eggassed 1 could be recommended to produce higher yield with better bulb quality under middle Egypt conditions.