Vol. 12, Issue 11 (2023)

Author(s):
Lallu Ram Awasthi, Reena Nair, SK Pandey, R Shiv Ramakrishnan, Himanshu Verma and Manoranjan Biswal

Abstract:
In a meticulously conducted experiment at the Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, during the Rabi season of 2022-23, a Factorial Randomized Block Design (FRBD) was utilized to explore the impact of twelve distinct seed priming treatments on onion cultivation. These treatments included two varieties of onion viz., Phule Samarth and B780 seeds of which were primed with KNO₃ at 2%, TiO₂ at 500ppm, PEG at 1MPa, Salicylic acid at 50ppm, Pseudomonas at 1%, and a control group using water. Each treatment was replicated three times to ensure result reliability. In terms of growth parameters, the combination of KNO₃ at 2% and B780 variety led to the highest plant height, Salicylic acid at 50ppm combined with B780 resulted in the highest number of leaves and longest leaf length, and B5A2 (Pseudomonas at 1% + B780) exhibited the maximum leaf width. Furthermore, B2A1 (TiO₂ at 500ppm + Phule Samarth) Resulted in the early maturity. In terms of yield parameters, the highest polar diameter was observed for treatment PEG at 1MPa + B780, the highest equatorial diameter for Salicylic acid at 50ppm + B780 and the highest bulb weight for Salicylic acid + B780. The combination of Salicylic acid at 50ppm + B780 also resulted in the highest yield per plot and the maximum marketable yield quantal per hectare. Economically, the data underscored the efficiency of KNO₃ at 2% and Salicylic acid at 50ppm treatments, particularly for the B780 variety, with a Benefit-to-Cost Ratio (B:C) of 2.21. These findings emphasize the potential seed priming for optimizing growth and yield in onion.