EFFECT OF AGE OF SEEDLINGS AND NUMBER OF PLANTS PER HILL ON THE GROWTH AND YIELD OF ONION

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at the Horticulture Farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka during October 2014 to April 2015. There were four levels of age of seedling viz. T 1 = 30, T 2 = 40, T 3 = 50 and T 4 = 60 days old seedling, respectively. Three levels of plants per hill viz. P 1 = one, P 2 = two and P 3 = three plants/hill, respectively. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with 3 replications. The age of seedling and number of plants/hill showed significantly influenced the growth, yield components and yield of onion bulb. T 3 treatment gave the maximum value for different growth and yield parameter and produced the maximum yield of bulbs of onion (8.82 t/ha). The highest yield of onion (8.45 t/ha) was produced by P 2 treatment and the lowest yield (6.92 t/ha) was at P 1 treatment. The combined effect of age of seedling and number of plants/hill demonstrated a significant variation in fresh weight of bulb (ranging from 68.25 g to 48.82 g) and yield (ranging from 5.52 to 9.40 t/ha). The highest yield was (9.40 t/ha) found at T 3 P 2 treatment. The treatment T 3 increased the total yield and gave the highest gross return (Tk. 4,23,000/ha) and net (Tk. 2,66,984/ha) returns with the highest profit (BCR value of 2.71) compared with the rest of the treatment combinations. From growth, yield and economic point of view, it is apparent that T 3

P 2 treatment was suitable for onion cultivation.