Onion bulb and seed yield as influenced by transplanting time and transplant age

Registration of a new variety needs information to be generated regarding its production technology. Therefore, an experiment was conducted at the experimental field of Vegetable Programme, Horticultural Research Institute, National Agricultural Research Center (NARC) Islamabad during 2017-19 to observe the effect of transplanting time and transplant age on onion bulb and seed yield for two new strains (NARC Onion-1 & NARC Onion-2) along with the cultivated variety (Phulkhara) as check. Highest bulb and seed yield was achieved from December transplanting and 12 weeks old transplant except in ‘Phulkara’ where seed yield per plant was best in February 15 transplanting and 08 & 10 weeks of transplant age treatments. Maximum bulb weight (96 grams) and yield per hectare (33.6 t/ha) was recorded in one of the onion strain tested (NARC Onion-2) when 12 weeks old seedling transplanted on December 15, 2017. However, seed yield per plant (15.1 gram) was highest in NARC Onion-1 among two strain tested. No one onion strains tested could gave higher seed yield/plant compared to ‘Phulkhara’. It could be concluded from the results that transplanting time and transplant age for first year bulb crop had a great impact on the preceding seed crop during second year.