Bhima Purple
A purple-skinned, early type suited to earlier planting in western India, where its short duration and colour find a specific market.
Quick facts
- Crop
- Garlic
- Type
- Planting material
- Season
- Rabi
- Maturity period
- 120–135 days
- Seed rate
- 400–500 kg of cloves per hectare. Reject small and damaged cloves — they produce the single, undersized bulbs that fetch nothing in a coloured-garlic lot
- Expected yield
- 60–70 q/ha
- Suitable soil
- Loam
- pH
- 6.0–8.0
- Disease resistance
- No specific bred-in resistance
- Release
- Developed 2009 by ICAR-DOGR, Pune, per corroborated secondary sources
Actual yield depends on sowing time, soil, irrigation, weather, seed quality and crop management.
About this variety
Bhima Purple was developed by ICAR-DOGR (Directorate of Onion and Garlic Research), Pune in 2009, per corroborated secondary sources. It has attractive purple-skinned bulbs, matures in 120-135 days, and gives an average yield of 6-7 t/ha (60-70 q/ha). It has been recommended for cultivation across eight states: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
Should you pick this variety?
Pick Bhima Purple if there is a buyer near you who pays for purple garlic, or if you want the earliest crop so the field is free sooner. It carries one of the widest state recommendations of any garlic here, but also the lowest yield of the varieties compared on this site, so the colour and the earliness have to be worth that gap. It has no bred-in disease resistance. For yield choose Yamuna Safed-3 or Agrifound White, and for storage Bhima Omkar.
Sowing & cultivation
- Sowing timeSeptember–October in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, October–November in Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Being an early type, it clears the field sooner than the white varieties (ICAR-DOGR)
- Seed rate400–500 kg of cloves per hectare. Reject small and damaged cloves — they produce the single, undersized bulbs that fetch nothing in a coloured-garlic lot
- Spacing15 cm row to row, 10 cm clove to clove, 2 cm deep
- Sowing methodPlant cloves upright — a clove laid sideways gives a bent neck and an uneven bulb. Dip in 0.1% carbendazim before planting
- IrrigationWater at planting and then every 7–10 days: 12–13 irrigations for the rabi crop. Stop 10–15 days before harvest so the skin cures and the purple colour holds
- Fertilizer100:50:50:50 kg NPKS per hectare with 20 t/ha farmyard manure in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, 75:40:40:40 in Bihar, Karnataka and Maharashtra. One-third of the nitrogen with all the P, K and S at planting, the rest at 30 and 45 days (ICAR-DOGR)
Advantages & considerations
Why farmers may choose it
- Distinctive purple skin colour, giving it a specific market niche apart from the common white-skinned garlic varieties
- Recommended across eight states by DOGR, one of the more widely recommended garlic varieties
Suitable regions
States this variety is recommended for — check locally, since a state can have more than one recommended zone.
- Andhra Pradesh
- Bihar
- Delhi
- Haryana
- Karnataka
- Maharashtra
- Punjab
- Uttar Pradesh
A purple garlic needs a buyer who wants purple
Bhima Purple is early, 110–120 days, with purple skin, and its yield, 60–70 q/ha, is lower than the white types compared here. It is not a general-purpose garlic: the reason to grow it is a market that specifically wants purple garlic, or an early window where nothing else is ready.
So ask before you plant. Find out from your trader or the nearest mandi whether purple garlic sells there, at what rate against white, and in what quantity. Where it does, the early maturity lets you reach that market before the main white crop arrives, which is the whole advantage. Where it does not, a white variety will pay more per acre. It carries no particular bred-in resistance, so keep the usual watch for purple blotch and thrips, and cure and store the crop as carefully as any other garlic.
Can you keep your own planting material?
This crop is planted from cloves, not from a seed packet, so your own field can supply next season. Keep the biggest, firmest bulbs from a patch that stayed free of rot, and break them into cloves only at planting time. Plant the fat outer cloves — small inner cloves give small bulbs, every season. Bring in clean stock when the size starts slipping or rot shows up in store.
How it compares with other varieties
Every Garlic variety with a page on this site, side by side. The row for this page is highlighted.
| Variety | Best for | Maturity | Yield | States |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agrifound Parvati (G-313) | Hill garlic with very large bulbs and a long cool season | 230–250 days | 200–225 q/ha | Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand |
| Agrifound White (G-41) | The default plains white garlic, with good keeping quality | 150–160 days | 120–150 q/ha | Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh |
| Bhima Omkar | Holding the crop in storage until the off-season price lifts | 120–135 days | 100–120 q/ha | Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan |
| Bhima Purplethis page | An early purple-skinned crop with a market of its own | 120–135 days | 60–70 q/ha | Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh |
| Yamuna Safed (G-1) | Long storage before sale, with large sickle-shaped cloves | 120–130 days | 150–170 q/ha | Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh |
| Yamuna Safed-3 (G-282) | Bold large-cloved white garlic for the export and premium trade | 140–150 days | 175–200 q/ha | Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Haryana, Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh |
Tools for this crop
The numbers you need next: how much seed to buy, whether the lot germinates, what the fertilizer bill looks like and what Garlic is selling for.
- Seed Rate CalculatorHow much seed your Garlic plot needs, corrected for the germination of the lot you bought.
- Seed Variety FinderFilter every Garlic variety on this site by state, season, duration and soil.
- Fertilizer CalculatorTurn the NPK recommendation for Garlic into bags of urea, DAP and MOP for your field size.
- Crop Profit CalculatorPut your seed, labour and input costs against the yield you expect from this variety.
- Mandi Price CheckerToday's Garlic rate in your nearest mandi, before you fix a price with a trader.
Subsidy and government support
Schemes that help with the cost of Garlic seed or planting material. Rules and the application route are on each scheme page.
Frequently asked questions
Who developed Bhima Purple garlic and when?
ICAR-DOGR (Directorate of Onion and Garlic Research), Pune, in 2009, per corroborated secondary sources.
Which states is Bhima Purple recommended for?
Eight states per DOGR: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
What yield does Bhima Purple give?
6-7 t/ha (60-70 q/ha), per DOGR-sourced material.
How long does Bhima Purple take to mature?
120–135 days, per corroborated secondary sources. ICAR-DOGR has no page of its own that we could open for this variety, so there is no official figure to set against it.
What makes Bhima Purple distinctive?
Its attractive purple-skinned bulbs, a distinctive market trait apart from the common white-skinned garlic varieties.
Does purple garlic actually fetch more?
Only where buyers ask for it — some city markets and processors pay for the colour, while a general mandi weighs it like any other garlic. At 60–70 q/ha against 130 for Agrifound White, check your buyer first, or the colour costs you money instead of earning it.
What do I gain from the earlier harvest?
Two things: the field is free sooner for the next crop, and the first garlic arrivals often meet a better rate before bulk supply lands. Both only pay if you can cure and move the crop quickly, since it has no particular storage advantage.
Is Bhima Purple suited to the south as well?
Yes, its recommendation includes Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka along with the northern states, which is unusual for a garlic variety. Ask your KVK for the local planting window, because the right sowing date matters more for bulb size than the variety does.
At what spacing and depth should Bhima Purple cloves go in?
15 cm row to row, 10 cm clove to clove, and 2 cm deep. Set each clove upright with the pointed end up. A clove planted on its side or upside down still grows, but it makes a bent, poorly filled bulb that grades down at sale.
Can I keep my own Bhima Purple cloves as seed?
Yes. Garlic is grown from cloves, so a healthy crop is next season's seed. Keep whole bulbs from the best plants, store them dry, and break them only at planting. Since the purple skin is what the buyer pays for, discard any off-colour bulbs from your seed lot.
Sourced from: Garlic Agropedia, ICAR-Directorate of Onion and Garlic Research: Bhima Purple's recommended states, planting calendar, clove rate, spacing, fertiliser and irrigation. editorial policy.