Effect of month of planting on flowering behaviour of common onion (Allium cepa var. cepa L.) genotypes Safari P, Sathiyamurthy V A*, Rajalingam G V, Padmapriya S Department of Vegetable Crops, Horticultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, Coimbatore-641 003, Tamil Nadu, India *E-mail: sathiyamurthyva@yahoo.co.in
Online published on 6 October, 2018. Abstract A field experiment was conducted to assess the effect of month of planting on flowering behaviour of common onion genotypes at Horticultural College and Research Institute, Coimbatore during 2014–15. The trial was conducted in factorial randomized block design with four replications. The two factors were month of planting (first week of October, first week of November, first week of December, first week of January and first week of February) and genotypes (NHRDF Red, NHRDF Red 2, Agrifound Light Red (ALR), Arka Kalyan, Arka Niketan, Arka Bindu and Arka Bheem). Observations on flowering parameters were recorded and statistically analyzed. The results of the study revealed significant interaction between month of planting and genotypes on flowering parameters. The genotype Arka Bindu planted in the first week of November recorded the lowest days taken for 50% flowering (23.7) and the highest days (67.5) was recorded in NHRDF Red, planted during the first week of February. The genotype ALR planted during the first week of November recorded the highest length of flower stalk (76.9 cm), widest umbel diameter (6.56 cm), number of flowers per umbel (325) and seed yield per plant (14.2 g). NHRDF Red 2 recorded the highest numbers of umbel per plant (8.03) followed by ALR (7.10) planted during the first week of November. Delayed planting (first week of January and February) showed poor performance in flowering behaviour of common onion genotypes. Top Keywords Allium cepa var cepa L.), Time of planting, Flowering, Seed yield, Genotypes. Top |