Enhancement of qualitative attributes of onion by application of mepiquat chloride

Abstract

An investigation was carried out at Agricultural Farm,
Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University
to evaluate the effect of mepiquat chloride quality characters
of onion cv. Agrifound Light Red viz. moisture content, TSS,
protein, sugar, nitrogen and acid content of bulb. The present
investigation comprised eight treatments viz., 50 g a.i./ha of
mepiquat chloride at 35 DAT, 62.5 g a.i./ha of mepiquat
chloride at 35 DAT, 125 g a.i./ha of mepiquat chloride at 35
DAT, 50 g a.i./ha of mepiquat chloride at 50 DAT, 62.5 g a.i./
ha of mepiquat chloride at 50 DAT, 125 g a.i./ha of mepiquat
chloride at 50 DAT, 50 g a.i./ha of mepiquat chloride at 35
and 50 DAT and control (water spray). The experiment was
conducted in randomised block design (RBD) with three
replications. The results of the present experiment showed
that 125 g a.i./ha of mepiquat chloride produced noticeably
superior results in terms of all the aforesaid characters in
comparison to all the other treatments. Maximum bulb dry
weight (8.96 g), protein (18.32 mg/g), sugar (8.61 %) nitrogen
(0.64 %) and acid content (0.29 %) were recorded under
treatment 125 g a.i./ha of mepiquat chloride at 35 DAT
whereas maximum moisture content was recorded under
control. However, treatment 62.5 g a.i./ha of mepiquat
chloride at 35 DAT observed significantly in case of TSS
content (13.670 Brix).