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Influence of Organic Formulations as Foliar Sprays on Yield
Attributing Traits of Onion ( L.)Allium cepa
Indian Journal of Ecology (2021) 48(4): 1111-1114
Manuscript Number: 3341
NAAS Rating: 5.79
Abstract: The present investigations with five promising onion varieties of Haryana region were selected viz. Pusa Riddhi, Pusa Madhavi,
NHRDF Red, Pusa Red and AGLR were conducted for yield potential. Three organic formulations were applied as pre- harvest spray viz. ,
neem based formulation (Besara), Panchgavya, (bio shield) and Control (water). Organic formulations sprayed as foliar Trichoderma viride
application at the interval of fifteen days on pre-harvest gave better results in yield and yield attributing characters of onion as compared to
control condition. Panchgavya applications resulted in maximum plant height, number of leaves, bulb diameter and bulb weight irresptives of
onion varieties. Among the onion varieties Pusa Riddhi exhibited maximum plant height, number of leaves, bulb diameter and bulb weight.
Minimum response was in onion varieties treated with Trichoderma viride.
Keywords: Onion, Organic formulations, Varieties, Yield attributes
Vinay Kumar and Prabhat Kumar Singh1
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Jalandhar-144 113, India
1Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, MSSSoA, Centurion University of Technology and Management
Paralakhemundi-761 211, India
E-mail: vinay.21017@lpu.co.in
Onion ( L.) is one of the oldest bulbous crops Allium cepa
known to mankind and consumed worldwide in various
cooked and raw forms. It is one of the most important
commercial horticultural vegetable crops and is of global
commercial importance. It is grown in almost all part of the
world and believed to be originated in central Asia (Kukanoor
2005). India ranks second in the production of onions next to
china and contribute about 19.25% of total world production
(FAO 2018).The other leading onion producing countries
apart from china and India are United States of America,
Turkey and Pakistan. In the year 2017-18, India exported
about 1588985 MT of fresh onion to the world amounting to
479.32 million USD. The major export destination included
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, UAE and Nepal (APEDA
2018). It is also reported that productivity of India (14.35 t ha )
-1
is 5 times less compared to Republic of Korea (66.16 t ha ), 4
-1
times less than USA (56.13 t ha ), Spain (55.21 t ha ),
-1 -1
Netherland (51.64 t ha ) and Myanmar (46.64 t ha )
-1 -1
(Chengappa et al 2012). The conventional methods of
fertilization and application of inorganic chemicals have
helped in both i.e. the bulb yield and the bulb quality. But, in
India the routine management practice appear to be
incapable of maintaining yield over the long period. The
steady reduction of soil fertility and occurrence of several
nutrient deficiencies in onion field has led to the reduced
onion production (Sharma et al 2003).
In past few years, organic agriculture is getting hold of
movement in India (Gopal 2015) due to individual as well as
group efforts to protect environment and contamination of
farm produce from use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
Since, Onion is a bulbous crop and is capable of scavenging
heavy metals from soil or contaminated irrigation water,
applied chemicals etc., poses severe health hazard. It is
really crucial to develop ecological and eco-friendly noble
agricultural practices through organic resources based on
scientific facts so that safe and hygienic production of onion
crop could be achieved (Worthington 1998, Kannaiyan
2000). During the past ten years a gradual shift in affinity
towards organically grown produce has been noticed and as
a result of which demand of organically grown onion has also
been seen increasing (Naik et al 2014). Presently, India is
ranked 10 among the countries in terms of area under
th
organic certification. India produced approximately 1.24
million MT of certified organic products in all varieties of foods
(APEDA 2018). Since, State of Haryana is among top 10
leading onion producing states of the country, an attempt was
made through this study to evaluate quality of five major
promising onion varieties of Haryana region (Pusa Riddhi,
Pusa Madhavi, NHRDF Red, Pusa Red and AGLR) and
effect of different organic formulations (applied as foliar
sprays during growth period) on quality and yield.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Present investigation conducted at National Institute of
Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management
(NIFTEM), Sonepat, Haryana during seasons of 2014-Rabi
16. Seedlings of five indigenous varieties of onion obtained
from regional station IARI, Karnal, Haryana (Pusa Riddhi,
Pusa Madhavi) and from regional station National
Horti culture Research and Development Foundation
(NHRDF), Karnal, Haryana (NHRDF Red, Pusa Red and
AGLR) were used as experimental materials. The field
experiment was conducted in randomized block design
(RBD) with three replications. The seedlings were planted in
plot size of 10 m x 4 m. with plant to plant spacing of 10 cm
and row to row spacing 15 cm.
Four different treatments Neem based formulation viz.
(Besara) @20 ml L , Panchgavya @100ml L ,
-1 -1 Trichoderma
viride -1
(Bio Shield) @50g L and untreated control were
subjected in form of foliar spray to all the varieties in
replicated mode. The organic formulations mentioned as
above were applied at four different intervals of times as pre-
harvest foliar sprays using hand sprayer. First spray applied
at 30 days to transplanting and subsequently remaining three
sprays given at 15 days interval (45, 60 and 75 days). The
dosage of respective organic formulation to be applied was
finalized as suggested by (Compant et al. 2019).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Plant height: There was significant difference in plant height
of different onion cultivars due to application of organic
formulation and different onion varieties. Pusa Riddhi
exhibited maximum plant followed by Pusa Red. The
application of panchgavya had significant impact on plant
height on all varieties. The maximum plant height was in
Pusa Riddhi (45.85cm) followed by Pusa Red and NHRDF
Red. The least impact on plant height of onion varieties was
observed with the application of . All onion Trichoderma viride
varieties were responsive towards application of panchgavya
and neem based formulation and recorded significant
increase in plant height as compared to control. The increase
on plant height due to application of panchgavya was also
Treatments [A] Plant height (cm) of onion varieties [B]
Pusa Madhavi Pusa Riddhi Pusa Red NHRDF Red AG LR Mean
Control 40.80 (10.30) 44.38 (13.17) 42.33 (12.23) 41.36 (8.09) 40.50 (6.30) 41.87 (10.02)
Neem based formulation 41.54 (11.42) 46.10 (14.43) 44.17 (13.14) 42.34 (9.09) 41.09 (7.79) 43.05 (11.18)
Panchgavya 42.40 (13.45) 48.36 (17.06) 45.25 (14.81) 43.09 (10.30) 42.92 (8.38) 44.41 (12.80)
Trichoderma viride 40.84 (10.36) 44.58 (13.14) 42.45 (12.53) 41.52 (8.14) 40.62 (6.46) 42.00 (10.13)
Mean 41.40 (11.39) 45.85 (14.52) 43.55 (13.18) 42.08 (8.90) 41.29 (7.23)
CD (p=0.05) Treatments [A] Varieties [B] Interaction [A x B]
0.02 (0.01) 0.01 (0.01) 0.02 (0.03)
Table 1. Impact of foliar spray of organic formulations on plant height (cm) and number of leaves plant * of selected onion
-1
varieties
*No. of leaves plant in parentheses
-1
reported by Kumar and Neeraj (2015) in onion and Kumar et
al (2020) in legume. The increase of plant height may be due
to better nutrient uptake and metabolization efficiency
resulting in increased cell division and enhancement of cell
size.
Number of leaves per plant: The results showed that
irrespective of treatments, among various onion varieties the
maximum number of leaves per plant was observed in Pusa
Riddhi (14.52) on overall mean basis (Table 1). Maximum
number of leaves among varieties applied with panchgavya.
Pusa Riddhi exhibited highest number of leaves (17.06)
followed by Pusa Red which was significantly higher as
compared to other treatments. Even under control condition,
maximum number of leaves per plant was recorded in Pusa
Riddhi (13.17) followed by Pusa Red (12.23), which were
higher and statistically significant as compared to number of
leaves in AGLR (6.30). No major difference was observed in
onion varieties applied with and control. The T. viride
application of neem based formulation was second best
treatment as compared to and control. Trichoderma viride
Similar results regarding more number of leaves per plant
were recorded by Selvaraj (2003) and Choudhary et al
(2017) while working with panchgavya and neem based
formulations.
Bulb diameter: The results in Table 2 irrespective of
treatments, on overall mean basis showed that Pusa Riddhi
had highest bulb diameter (45.71mm) followed by Pusa Red
(42.50mm), NHRDF red (41.32mm). The smallest bulbs
were observed in AGLR (38.29mm). Even under control
condition, maximum bulb diameter was recorded in Pusa
Riddhi (44.50mm) followed by Pusa Red (41.80mm). Among
various treatments applied, on over all mean basis, the
maximum bulb diameter (irrespective of varieties) was
observed in onion bulbs treated with panchgavya
(43.38mm).
This was slightly higher as compared to other treatments
1112 Vinay Kumar and Prabhat Kumar Singh
Treatments [A] Bulb diameter (mm) of onion varieties [B]
Pusa Madhavi Pusa Riddhi Pusa Red NHRDF Red AG LR Mean
Control 39.89 (86.33) 44.50 (89.34) 41.80 (87.87) 40.85 (80.54) 37.65 (72.17) 40.94 (83.27)
Neem based formulation 40.09 (87.46) 45.46 (90.77) 42.17 (87.67) 41.06 (81.21) 37.84 (72.15) 41.32 (83.91)
Panchgavya 41.86 (88.60) 48.15 (92.34) 44.07 (89.15) 42.51 (88.67) 39.90 (73.60) 43.38 (86.47)
Trichoderma viride 39.95 (86.51) 44.72 (89.22) 41.96 (87.29) 40.84 (80.76) 37.76 (72.30) 41.05 (83.21)
Mean 40.45 (87.23) 45.71 (90.42) 42.50 (88.00) 41.32 (82.80) 38.29 (72.65)
CD (p=0.05) Treatments [A] Varieties [B] Interaction [A x B]
0.02 (0.38) 0.02 (0.53) 0.05 (0.86)
Table 2. Impact of foliar spray of organic formulations on Bulb diameter (mm) and bulb weight* (g) of selected onion varieties
*bulb weight in parentheses
and control. The least bulb diameter irrespective of
treatments was observed in control (40.94mm). Among
various varieties, maximum bulb diameter was observed with
panchgavya application in Pusa Riddhi (48.15mm) followed
by Neem extract (45.46mm), which more than control
(44.50mm). Similarly, in Pusa Red, application of
panchgavya gave maximum diameter (44.07mm) followed
by application of Neem based formulation (42.17mm), which
was more than control (41.80mm). The least impact on bulb
diameter of onion bulb was observed with application of
Trichoderma viride in all the varieties which was more or less
same as that of control. The results are in accordance with
the finding of Kondappa et al (2009) and Manna et al (2016) in
chilli with different organic formulations.
Bulb weight: There was increase in bulb weight as a result of
application of various organic formulations as compared to
control (Table 2). Maximum bulb weight was recorded with
application of panchgavya. Irrespective of treatments, Pusa
Riddhi had maximum mean bulb weight (90.42gm) on overall
mean basis followed by in Pusa Red (88.00gm), Pusa
Madhavi (87.23gm). The minimum bulb weight was observed
in AGLR (72.65gm). The maximum bulb weight was
observed in all the selected onion varieties as result of
panchgavya application, however, the maximum bulb weight
was recorded in Pusa Riddhi (92.34gm) followed by 89.15gm
in Pusa Red. Pusa Madhavi, NHRDF Red showed similar
weight with panchgavya application (i.e. 88.60gm and
88.67gm, respectively). The results obtained with the
application of panchgavya in all the varieties were higher and
differences were statistically significant as compared to
control and application. The results also Trichoderma viride
showed that there was about 10% increase in bulb weight in
NHRDF Red (88.67gm) with panchgavya application as
compared to control (80.54gm). Similar finding on increase in
weight of onion bulb have also been reported by other
researchers working with onion (Boyhan et al 2001, Meena
2017).
CONCLUSION
Pusa Riddhi had maximum overall mean value for plant
height, number of leaves per plant, bulb diameter and bulb
weight and appeared as the best performing variety under
the given organic treatment. Among numerous treatments
applied, irrespective of varieties, Panchgavya exhibited
better growth as compared to other treatments including
control for all the attributing characters under study. On
contrary, irrespective of genotypes Trichoderma viride
showed minimum response towards all the characters
studied.
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Received 03 July, 2021; Accepted 31 July, 2021
1114 Vinay Kumar and Prabhat Kumar Singh
