Effect of weed management practices on growth, yield and quality of onion

Abstract

The present experiment was conducted during 2014-15 and 2015-16 to appraise the efficacy of weed management practices on growth, yield and quality of onion. The results revealed that the growth and yield characters viz., plant height, number of leaves per plant, fresh and dry weight of plant, average bulb weight, neck thickness, polar and equatorial diameter of bulb and bulb yield were observed higher and equally effective under treatments T15 (weed free check), T12 (PRE - Oxyfluorfen @ 250 g a.i. ha-1 + one hand weeding at 35 DAT) followed by treatment T6 (PRE - Oxyfluorfen @ 250 g a.i. ha-1 + Oxyfluorfen @ 250 g a.i. ha-1 at 35 DAT) and T10 (PRE - Pendimethalin @ 1000 g a.i. ha-1 + Oxyfluorfen @ 250 g a.i. ha-1 at 35 DAT). Also, treatment T6 followed by T12, T10 and T14 were economically feasible and viable and gave maximum B:C ratio of 2.20, 2.19, 2.18 and 2.16, respectively. The quality parameters viz.; total soluble solids (TSS %), total sugar (g 100g-1) and dry matter content of bulb were not influenced by the various treatments of weed management.