Effect of iron, zinc and boron on nutrients status of soil, yield and yield attributes of onion (Allium cepa L.) CV. agrifound light red

Abstract

The field experiment entitled “Effect of iron, zinc and boron on nutrient status of soil, yield and yield attributes of onion (Allium cepa L.) cv. Agrifound Light Red” was conducted at Horticulture Instructional Farm, Department of Horticulture, C. P. College of Agriculture, Sardarkrushinagar, Distt. Banaskantha, Gujarat during rabi 2013-14 and 2014-15. Experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design (under factorial concept) with twenty seven treatment combinations comprising three levels of each viz., iron (0, 20 and 40 kg/ha), zinc (0, 25, and 50 kg/ha) and boron (0, 2.5 and 5.0 kg/ha) was tested three replications. The results revealed that the status of available iron, zinc and boron in soil before crop transplanting were not significant. The interaction effect between iron, zinc and boron on available boron before crop transplanting (0.958 mg/kg) was found to be significant under treatment combination i2z2b2. The result revealed that the status of available iron and zinc in soil after crop harvesting were found not significant. Treatment b2 (5.0 kg boron/ha) obtained maximum boron content (2.424 mg/kg) in the soil after crop harvesting. In case of yield and yield attributes, the significantly superior treatment was i1 (20 kg iron/ha) with 142.47 g bulb weight, 19.220 kg yield/plot and 547.58 q yield/ha. Application of zinc @ 25 kg/ha was reported to have produce significant results with yield and yield attributes. Boron @ 5.0 kg/ha) was found significantly superior for yield attributes i.e. 138.71 g bulb weight, 18.741 kg yield/plot and 533.93 q bulb yield/ha. Interaction between iron and zinc significant for weight of bulb (157 g) was observed with treatment combination i1z1. In order to achieve the optimum yield and yield attributes of onion cultivar Agrifound Light Red, 20 kg iron/ha, 25 kg zinc/ha and 5 kg boron/ha should be applied.