Biotechnological

Communication

Biosci. Biotech. Res. Comm. 10(3): 415-418 (2017)

In uence of different spacing and cultivars on yield

components and biochemical parameters of onion

(

Allium cepa L.

)

Saurabh Kishor, R. B. Ram, M.L. Meena*, Sachin Kishor, D. C. Meena and Anil Kumar

Department of Applied Plant Science (Horticulture), Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Vidya Vihar

Rae Bareli Road Lucknow (UP), India

ABSTRACT

The investigation was undertaken to determine the effect of spacing and cultivars on economic horticultural traits of

onion. In trail different spacing was taken 7.5  10 cm, 10  10 cm, 12.5  10 cm and 15  10 cm. Three varieties viz.

Agrifound Light Red, NHRDF Red-3 and NHRDF L-28 were used for study. The layout of experimental  eld was laid

down in Factorial Randomized Block Design with 3 replications. It is clearly revealed that the signi cantly contrary,

yield ha

-1

was the highest (404.14 q ha

-1

) at closer spacing (10  10 cm) and the lowest was (362.47 q ha

-1

) at wider

spacing 15  10 cm. The weight of individual bulb of onion (49.54 g) was increased with the wider spacing (12.5  10

cm). The bulb length (6.63 cm), diameter (6.97 cm) and number of scale per bulb (8.00) also the same trend in widest

spacing (15  10 cm). The interaction of spacing and different cultivars had in uenced signi cantly on total solu-

ble solids and ascorbic acid of onion bulb. Signi cant effect was found among the varieties for total soluble solids,

ascorbic acid, reducing sugar. Studied highest total soluble solids (13.960Brix), ascorbic acid (10.03), reducing sugar

(8.50), non reducing (9.70%) and total sugars (17.70%) respectively.

KEY WORDS: ONION, SPACING, CULTIVARS, GROWTH AND YIELD

415

ARTICLE INFORMATION:

*Corresponding Author: drmeena1997@gmail.com

Received 1

July, 2017

Accepted after revision 12

Sep, 2017

BBRC Print ISSN: 0974-6455

Online ISSN: 2321-4007 CODEN: USA BBRCBA

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NAAS Journal Score 2017: 4.31 Cosmos IF: 4.006

reserved.

Online Contents Available at:

http//www.bbrc.in/

DOI: 10.21786/bbrc/10.3/13

416 INFLUENCE OF DIFFERENT SPACING AND CULTIVARS ON YIELD COMPONENTS BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

Saurabh Kishor et al.

INTRODUCTION

Onion is a bulbous herbaceous biennial vegetable crop

which belongs to family Alliaceae and widely grown as

with cross-pollinated and monocotyledonous behavior

having diploid chromosomes 2n=16 (Bassett, 1986).

Onion is the most important bulb crop cultivated com-

mercially in most parts of the world. The crop is grown

for consumption both in the green states as well as in

mature bulbs. It is valued for its bulbs having character-

istics odour,  avor, and pungency, which is due to the

presence of a volatile oil-allyl-propyl-disulphide, (Kan-

tona etal., 2003 and Habtamu etal., 2016 and Kishor

etal., 2017).

Onion is the richest source of  avonoids in the

human diet and  avonoid consumption has been asso-

ciated with a reduced risk of cancer, heart disease and

diabetes. In addition it is known for anti bacterial, anti-

viral, anti-allergenic and anti in ammatory potential.

Even though the crop has great contribution both in

economic and health issues, its production and produc-

tivity is not scaled to the required level. This is because

use of appropriate agronomic management practices

and improved technology inputs are still not highly

used which have undoubted contribution in increasing

crop yield potential. One of the important measures to

be taken in increasing the productivity of onion is deter-

mining spacing for each agro-ecology since full package

of information is required for each growing region the

country to optimize onion productivity (Gupta, et al.,

1994). Proper spacing ensures optimum plant growth

through adequate utilization of moisture, light, spacing

and nutrients (Zubeldia and Gases, 1977). The control of

plant spacing is one of the cultural practices to control

bulb size, shape and yield (Geremew et al., 2010). The

higher yield and better control of over or under bulb

size bulb size could be obtained if plants are grown at

optimum density. Total bulb yield can be increased as

population density increase (Kantona et al., 2003 and

Habtamu etal., 2016 and Kishor etal., 2017).

Several researchers in many countries have shown

that varieties and plant spacing had profound effects

on the growth and yield of onion (Pandey etal., 1991;

Bhonden et al., 1995 and Kumar et al., 1998, Kishor

et al., 2017). Considering the above stated situations,

the present study was undertaken to determine the effect

of spacing on growth and yield of different cultivars of

onion under Lucknow conditions (Allium cepa l.).

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The experiment was conducted at Horticulture Research

Farm-II of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University,

Vidya Vihar Rae Bareli Road Lucknow (UP) during

November 2015 to April 2016 under subtropical condi-

tion. The experiment site lies about 260 56 N latitude

and 800 52 E longitude at an altitude of 111 m above sea

level. The area experiences rainfall that stretches from

April to October with the main rainy season from June

to early September. The area receives average rainfall

between 800-1000 mm with annual and maximum tem-

perature ranging from 15 to 300C. Three varieties viz.

Agrifound Light Red, NHRDF Red-3 and NHRDF L-28

and four plant spacing such as 7.5  10 cm, 10  10

cm, 12.5  10 cm and 15  10 cm were used for study.

The experiment was laid out in Factorial Randomized

Block Design (RBD) and replicated in thrice. Standard

analytical methods were followed for recording vari-

ous parameters. The observation was made on the fol-

lowing parameters yield kg/plot, yield kg/ha, weight of

bulb, bulb length (cm), bulb diameter (cm), number of

scale per bulb, total soluble solids (0Brix) was measured

with the help of an Erma hand refractometer and were

corrected using standard reference table and express in

terms of (0Brix) at 200, ascorbic acid (mg/100g) Ascor-

bic acid content was determined by diluting the known

volume of juice with 3% meta-phosphoric acid and

titrating with 2,6- dichlorophenol-indo-phenol solu-

tion, reducing sugar (%), non reducing sugar (%) and

total sugars (% ) were determined by titrating the sample

against Fehlings solution using methylene blue as an

indicator. All the parameters were collected from  ve

randomly selected plants of each treatment. On set of

the Rabi season these healthy bulb uniform shape and

size were selected and transplanted well prepared  eld

Statistical analysis of the data obtained in different set

of experiments was calculated following the standard

procedure as stated by (Panse and Sukhatme, 1989).

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

YIELD COMPONENTS

The results obtained during the investigation in respect

to yield components parameters viz., yield kg/plot, yield

kg/ha, weight of bulb, bulb length (cm), bulb diameter

(cm), number of scale per bulb, total soluble solids (

Brix),

ascorbic acid (mg/100g), reducing sugar (%), non reduc-

ing sugar (%) and total sugars (% ) Table 1. The interac-

tion effect of spacing and different cultivars had in u-

enced signi cantly on the parameters. The maximum

yield (7.34 kg/plot and 489.77 q ha

-1

) was recorded from

the variety Agrifound Light Red with spacing 10  10 cm

followed by the variety NHRDF Red-3 (6.88 kg/plot and

458.77 q ha

-1

) with spacing 7.5  10 cm. The minimum

yield (4.67 kg/plot and 311.44 q ha

-1

) was recorded from

the variety Agrifound Light Red with spacing 12.5  10

cm. While the heaviest bulb (57.60 g) was recorded from

BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS INFLUENCE OF DIFFERENT SPACING AND CULTIVARS ON YIELD COMPONENTS 417

Saurabh Kishor et al.

Table 1. In uence of different spacing and cultivars on yield components and biochemical parameters f Onion

Varieties Spacing

Yield

(kg/plot)

Yield

(q/ha)

Weight of

bulb (g)

Bulb diameter

(cm)

Length of

bulb (cm)

Number of

scale per bulb

Total soluble

solids (

Brix)

Ascorbic acid

(mg/100g)

Reducing

sugar (%)

Non reducing

sugar (%)

Total

sugars (%)

Agrifoun Light Red (7.5x10cm)

6.59 439.55 33.22 5.01 4.86 7.00 10.66 7.43 5.50 8.47 13.97

Agrifoun Light Red (10x10cm)

7.34 489.77 36.00 5.05 5.40 7.00 10.76 8.60 6.63 8.37 15.00

Agrifoun Light Red (12.5x10cm)

4.67 311.44 22.56 5.16 5.08 7.33 12.33 8.90 6.27 8.67 14.93

Agrifoun Light Red (15x10cm)

5.81 387.33 38.20 6.86 6.86 8.00 12.53 8.83 7.93 9.77 17.70

NHRDF Red-3 (7.5x10cm)

6.88 458.77 44.33 5.49 5.40 7.00 12.50 8.83 7.73 8.83 16.57

NHRDF Red-3 (10x10cm)

6.47 431.77 40.36 5.48 5.36 7.33 13.96 8.43 7.37 8.67 16.03

NHRDF Red-3 (12.5x10cm)

5.83 388.88 48.13 5.68 5.03 7.33 12.76 9.20 7.83 8.57 16.40

NHRDF Red-3 (15x10cm)

6.71 447.33 55.43 7.06 6.53 7.66 12.06 9.93 8.23 8.67 16.90

NHRDF L-28 (7.5x10cm)

5.40 360.22 43.63 5.80 5.38 7.00 13.50 9.13 7.13 9.60 16.73

NHRDF L-28 (10x10cm)

6.14 409.55 49.80 6.52 5.10 7.33 13.23 8.40 7.60 9.00 16.60

NHRDF L-28 (12.5x10cm)

5.80 387.11 57.60 6.14 5.59 7.33 12.26 8.76 7.63 9.07 16.70

NHRDF L-28 (15x10cm)

5.66 377.77 55.00 7.00 6.51 8.33 11.86 10.03 8.50 8.97 17.47

CD (P=0.05)

0.19 12.86 8.54 0.48 N/S N/S 0.80 0.82 N/S N/S N/S

SE(m)±

0.06 4.35 2.89 0.16 0.23 0.37 0.27 0.27 0.56 0.38 0.67

the variety NHRDF L-28 with spacing 12.5  10 cm fol-

lowed by variety NHRDF L-28 with spacing 15  10 cm

(55.00 g) and lightest bulb was obtained from the variety

Agrifound Light Red with 7.5  10 cm. While the biggest

bulb diameter (7.06 cm) was recorded from the variety

NHRDF Red-3 with 15  10 cm followed by the variety

Agrifound Light Red with spacing 15  10 cm (6.86 cm).

The lowest bulb diameter (5.01 cm) was recorded from

the variety Agrifound Light Red with 7.5  10 cm. While

the length of bulb and number of scale per bulb was not

signi cantly in uenced by the different spacing and cul-

tivars. However, the highest length of bulb (6.86 cm) was

recorded from the variety Agrifound Light Red with spac-

ing 15  10 cm followed by variety NHRDF Red-3 with

15x10cm cm (6.53 cm) and the lowest bulb length (4.86

cm) was recorded from the variety Agrifound Light Red

with spacing 7.5  10 cm. Thus, the number of scale per

bulb (8.33) was increased from the variety NHRDF L-28

with spacing 15  10 cm followed by variety Agrifound

Light Red with spacing 15  10 cm (8.00). This is due to

proper spacing ensures optimum growth and weight of

bulb through adequate utilization of moisture, light, spac-

ing and nutrients (Zubeldia and Gases, 1977 Habtamu

et al., 2016 ). These results are conformity with (Kumar

etal., 1998), the highest yield with a spacing of 15  10

cm, (Kantona etal., 2003) and (Khan et al., 2003) total

bulb yield can be increased as population density increase

and (Gupta and Gaffer, 1980) bulb size and bulb weight

decreased with the decrease in spacing (Kishor etal., 2017).

Table 1 indicated that interaction of spacing and dif-

ferent cultivars had in uenced signi cantly on total

soluble solids and ascorbic acid of onion bulb. The max-

imum total soluble solids (13.96

Brix) were obtained

from variety NHRDF Red-3 with spacing 10  10 cm

followed by variety NHRDF L-28 with spacing 7.5  10

cm (13.50

Brix) and minimum (10.66

Brix) was recorded

from variety Agrifound Light Red with spacing 7.5  10

cm. While ascorbic acid (9.93 mg/100g) was increased

from variety NHRDF RED-3 with spacing 15  10 cm

followed by variety NHRDF RED-3 with spacing 12.5

 10 cm (9.20 mg/100g) and minimum (7.43 mg/100g)

amount of ascorbic acid was recorded from variety Agri-

found Light Red with spacing 7.5  10 cm.

Thus reducing sugar, non reducing sugar and total

sugars were not signi cantly in uenced by the different

spacing and cultivars interaction. However, the maximum

reducing sugar (8.50%) was recorded from variety NHRDF

L-28 with spacing 15  10 cm followed by variety NHRDF

Red-3 with spacing 15  10 cm (8.23%) and minimum

(5.50%) was recorded from variety Agrifound Light Red

with spacing 7.5  10 cm. While maximum non reduc-

ing (9.70%) and total sugars (17.70%) were recorded from

variety Agrifound Light Red with spacing 15  10 cm fol-

lowed by spacing 7.5  10 cm and 15  10 cm with variety

418 INFLUENCE OF DIFFERENT SPACING AND CULTIVARS ON YIELD COMPONENTS BIOSCIENCE BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS

Saurabh Kishor et al.

NHRDF L-28. This result is in agreement with the  ndings

of (Gupta and Gaffer 1980), (Khan etal., 2003) in onion

and (Kumar etal., 1998) obtained the better quality with

spacing of 15x10 cm in onion.

CONCLUSION

Our study was concerted to the combined application

of different spacing and varieties favorably in uenced

plant growth attributes. Results clearly emphasized the

importance of spacing as well as selection of varieties

of onion, as the conjoint use of them yielded higher and

gave a remunerative return. Based on the trend of yield

and economical aspects of onion observed in the present

study; it was concluded that for getting higher bulb yield

of onion, combined application of 10  10 cm spacing

with var. Agrifound Light Red, was best under Lucknow

conditions by 7.5  10 cm spacing with var. NHRDF

Red-2 and 15  10 cm spacing with var. NHRDF Red-2.

These results however need to be further con rmed on

multi locations large scale trials before passing as rec-

ommendations to the onion growers of Lucknow.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors express their thanks to Director, NHRDF

Regional Station, Deoria (UP) for providing seed materials.

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