EFFECTS OF SALINITY ON GROWTH, YIELD AND NUTRIENTS CONTENT OF TWO ONION CULTIVERS

Abstract

A pot experiment was conducted at the net house of Agro-Environmental Chemistry Laboratory, Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207 from November, 2020 to April, 2021 to observe the effects of salinity on growth, yield, and nutrient content of two onion cultivars. The experiment was conducted using two varieties (BARI Piaz-1 and BARI Piaz-6) and five salinity levels (0, 3, 6, 9 and 12 dSm -1 ). The experiment was set in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) having two factors with three replications. Results of the experiment showed that plant height, number of leaves per plant, length of leaf, fresh weight of leaf per plant, length of bulb, diameter of bulb, individual bulb weight of onion were influenced by varieties. The tallest plant (40.90 cm) was found in BARI Piaz-1 that statistically not significant. BARI Piaz-6 achieved the maximum length of leaf (34.65 cm), number of leaves per plant (5.39), fresh weight of leaf per plant (1.73 g), length of bulb (30.33 mm). Among the two cultivars, the higher individual bulb weight (30.56 g) was found in BARI Piaz-6. Among different salinity levels the maximum plant height (43.99 cm), length of leaf (37.29 cm), fresh weight of leaf per plant (2.07 g), length of bulb (30.33 mm), diameter of bulb (31.5 cm) of onion was obtained at 0 dSm . The highest individual bulb weight (34.26 g) was also recorded at control treatment. Among the combined effects of varieties and salinity levels, individual bulb weight (36.70 g) was found in BARI Piaz-6 with 0 dSm -1 level and at 3, 6, 9 and 12 dSm

salinity levels BARI Piaz-6 should better result than BARI Piaz-1. Among the two varieties, K content was maximum in BARI Piaz-6 than BARI Piaz-1. In both varieties K content decreased significantly with the increasing salinity level. Na content was higher in BARI Piaz-1 than BARI Piaz-6. In both varieties it increased significantly with the increasing salinity level. N content was higher in BARI Piaz6 than BARI Piaz-1. P and S content was higher in BARI Piaz-1 than BARI Piaz-6.

The cultivar

BARI Piaz-6 had better expression of morphological, yield and yield contributing characters than those of BARI Piaz-1 under salinity stress.