EFFECT OF MANURES AND MULCHES ON THE GROWTH AND YIELD OF ONION

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at the Horticulture Farm, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh during the period from October 2016 to March 2017. The experiment consisted of two factors: Factor A: manure viz. factor A: T 0 = Control (no manure), T 1 = Cowdung (9 t/ha), T = Cowdung + Poultry manure (5 t/ha+3 t/ha), T = Cowdung + Poultry manure + Vermicompost (3 t/ha+2 t/ha+2 t/ha) and factor B: mulch material viz. M 3 = No mulch, M 1 = Black polythene mulch, M = Water hyacinth mulch. The two factor experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Blocked Design with three replications. Among the manure treatment, T 2 treatment performed best in case of vegetative characteristics (plant height, number of leaf, leaf length, neck diameter, root length) and also in reproductive characteristics like bulb diameter (4.14 cm), single bulb weight (40.33 g) and yield per hectare (10.08 t) and minimum in T 0 3 treatment (control). In case of mulching, vegetative characteristics like plant height, leaf length was found best in M

treatment and other vegetative and reproductive characteristics like bulb diameter (3.98 cm), single bulb weight (37.56 g) and yield per hectare (9.39 t) performed best in M 1 treatment while the minimum in M treatment. In combined effect, the highest yield (10.67 t/ha) was obtained from T 0

treatment combination with highest benefit cost ratio (2.31) and lowest yield (7.75 t/ha) in T 0 M treatment combination. So, mixture of cowdung, poultry manure and vermicompost with black polythene mulch combinedly performed best for the growth and yield of onion.