Effect of Irrigation on yield and quality of onion

Field study was conducted at Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Seed Production Farm, Ladhowal, Punjab, during the rabi season compare the yield, yield contributing characters and quality of onion under different irrigation schedules. The experiment was conducted with five levels of irrigation (1.3 x Epan 1.0 x Epan 0.8 x Epan 0.7 x Epan 0.6 x Epan) along with irrigation practice as followed by farmers. The highest plant height (59.1 cm), number of leaves (13.5) and yield (34.4 t/ha-1) were where irrigation was applied at, 1.0 x Epan closely followed by farmer’s practice. Yield production models suggested that quadratic model was the best fit for production prediction purpose with significant and higher R2 value (0.80). The study also revealed that dry matter and pyruvate content of bulbs reduced significantly at higher levels of irrigation. It was concluded from the study that storage characteristics of onion improved with the reduced quantity of irrigation water.