Vol. 12, Special Issue 12 (2023)

Author(s):
Hetal R Rathod, KD Desai, TR Ahlawat, VR Naik, DR Bhanderi and VK Parmar

Abstract:
The present investigation was undertaken at Soil and Water Management Research Farm, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari during the winter (Rabi) seasons of 2021-22 and 2022-23 on onion cv. Gujarat Junagadh Red Onion-11 (GJRO-11). The experiment consisting three factors, two main factors viz., deficit irrigation (0.4 ETc, 0.6 ETc and 0.8 ETc), land configuration (raised bed and flat bed) and one sub factor viz., foliar spray of growth substances (control, salicylic acid 250 mg l^-1, potassium silicate 250 mg l^-1 and kaolin 50 g l^-1). The onion plants exposed to irrigation regime 0.8 ETc yielded significantly the highest marketable bulb yield (39.23, 32.81 and 36.02 t ha^-1, respectively) and shelf life (69.17, 73.33 and 71.25 days, respectively) during both the consecutive years and in pooled analysis. Land configurations did not show significant influence on the marketable bulb yield. While, the maximum shelf life (69.17 days and 69.92 days, respectively) was obtained from the raised bed land configuration during first year and in pooled analysis. The highest marketable bulb yield (33.26 t ha^-1) was noticed under the treatment receiving foliar spray of potassium silicate 250 mg l^-1 however, the maximum shelf life (69.78 days) was obtained with foliar spray of salicylic acid @ 250 mg l^-1. The economics was calculated based on individual treatment effect and maximum net income of ₹ 2, 42, 682 ha^-1 and benefit: cost ratio (1.28) was registered by individual effect of 0.8 ETc irrigation level.