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).