INFLUENCE OF PLANTS PER HILL AND HARVESTING TIME ON GROWTH, YIELD AND ECONOMIC BENEFIT OF ONION

Abstract

The experiment was conducted at the horticultural research farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, during the period from November, 2016 to April, 2017 .Three levels of number of plants per hill viz. P

1 = One plant per hill, P = Two plants per hill and P 3 = Three plants per hill and three levels of harvesting time viz. H

= 100 DAT, H 2 = 110 DAT and H = 120 DAT were considered for the present study. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. Number of plants per hill had significant effect on growth, yield and yield contributing parameters of onion. Harvesting time of onion had no significant effect on growth and yield contributing parameters except fresh weight per bulb, % dry weight of bulb and bulb yield. Combination of number of plants per hill and harvesting time, the highest fresh weight per bulb( 43.52 g/bulb) from P 3 1 H and the highest yield (1.37 kg/plot) and highest yield (24.40 t/ha) were recorded from the treatment combination of P 2 H 2 1 where the lowest fresh weight per bulb (29.07 g/bulb) from P where the lowest yield (0.58 kg/plot) and lowest yield (14.37 t/ha) were recorded from the treatment combination of P 1 H . The highest BCR (3.51) was obtained from the P 2 H 2 1 where as the lowest BCR (2.08) were from P 1 H . It can be concluded that , two plants per hill and 110 days after harvesting provided the best result for growth,

yield and economic benefit of Onion.