EFFECT OF NITROGEN AND NUMBER OF PLANTS PER HILL ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF ONION (Allium cepa L.)

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out at Horticulture Farm, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka to study the effect of nitrogen and number of plant (s) per hill on the growth and yield of onion during the period from November 2006 to April 2007. The experiment consisted with two factors, factor A: four levels of nitrogen viz. No=O, N1=60, N2=120 and N3=l 80 kg/ha respectively and factor B: three different numbers of plant(s)/hill viz. Pi=one plant, Ps=two plants and P3= three plants/hill. The two factors experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. In case of nitrogen, N3 performed maximum plant height (32.07cm) , number of leaves (7.8), diameter of bulb (3.Scm), length of bulb (2.35cm), fresh weight of foliage (7.1 Sg), fresh weight of bulb (22.69g) and yield (20 t/ha). In case of number of plan(s)/hill P1 performed maximum plant height (32.28cm), number of leaves (7.43), diameter of bulb (3.98cm), length of bulb (2.32cm), fresh weight of foliage (9.16g) and fresh weight of bulb/plant (27.19g), while maximum yield (22.64 t/ha) was found in case of P3. For combined effect the maximum plant height (33.40cm), number of leaves (7.87), length of bulb (2.4Scm), diameter of bulb (4.21cm), fresh weight of foliage (9.92g) and fresh weight of bulb/plant (27.55g) was obtained from P1N3 treatment combination, while P3N3 contributed the highest yield (23.53 t/ha). So, it may be suggested that three plants /hill with 180 kg N/ha can be used to obtain higher growth as well as higher yield ..