INFLUENCE OF NUTRIENT SOURCES ON GROWTH AND BULB YIELD OF ONION CULTIVARS

Abstract

The present research was undertaken with the aims to investigate the influence of nutrient sources and onion cultivars on growth and yield of onion in the field condition. The experiment was conducted during the period from October 2018 to March 2019 at Horticultural farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka. The experiment was performed with Randomized Complete Block Design which consists of two factors viz. Factor A: Nutrient sources- 4 Kinds viz. F 0 = Control, F 1 = Foliar spray (NPKS), F 2 = Inorganic fertilizer (NPK) and F 3 = Vermicompost and Factor B: Cultivars of Onions- 3 Kinds viz. V 1 = BARI Piaz-1, V 2 = BARI Piaz-4 and V 3 = BARI Piaz-5. The results demonstrated that growth parameters, reproductive components, and yield were significantly different among the different treatments. The highest plant height (52.66 cm) and number of leaves plant -1 (6.61) were obtained from treatment combination V 1

and V 2 F 3, respectively. Though the highest straw yield (5.80 t) ha was obtained from treatment combination V 1 F 2 but the highest bulb length (4.15 cm), bulb diameter (4.46 cm), fresh weight of bulb (46.88 g), yield plot -1 (1125.28 g) and yield ha -1 (12.09 t) were obtained from treatment combination V 3 while the lowest was recorded from V 2 F 0 . The highest yield was recorded in Onion cultivar BARI Piaz-5 with application of inorganic fertilizer (NPK) compared to other treatments.