Vol. 11, Issue 7 (2022)

Author(s):
Karan Singh Saini, SK Dhankhar and Davinder Singh

Abstract:
An investigation was carried out to study the effect of cutting frequency of beet leaf crop, on the growth, flowering characteristics and seed yield of onion crops namely days to full bloom, the number of umbels per bulb, length of flowering stalks, diameters of flowering stalks, seeds per umbel and seeds per plant. The beet leaf was cultivated as an intercrop with onion seed crop in one and two rows intercropping arrangements. Different frequencies of beet leaf cuttings such as onion + beet leaf with 3 cuttings, onion + beet leaf with 4 cuttings, onion + beet leaf with 5 cuttings, and onion + beet leaf with 6 cuttings were studied w.r.t onion sole crop (control). The observations recorded on the onion crop under different treatments revealed that when the cutting frequency of beet leaf was increased it led to reduction in the number of umbels per bulb, length of flowering stalks, diameters of flowering stalks but days to full bloom of onion crop got extended with increase in the cutting frequency of beet leaf crop. In addition, maximum seed yield on umbel (2.473 g) and plant basis (24.95 g) was attained under onion sole and these parameters decreased successively with increase in cutting frequency of intercropped beat leaf crop. The results of this study indicated that the cutting frequency of intercropped beet leaf crop in the onion setup can influence seed yield of onion crop.