Yield potential of onion as influenced by soil test basis nutrient management

Farmer’s perception of nutrient management for onion bulb production often ignores the soil test basis (STB) which provides essential base line information on the nutrient status of soils. A field experiment on onion (cv. BARI Piaj-4) was conducted during three consecutive years 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 at the research field of Spices Research Centre (level Barind Tract, AEZ 25), BARI, Shibganj, Bogura, Bangladesh to determine the optimum doses of Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), Potassium (K), Sulphur (S), Zinc (Zn) and Boron (B) for maximization of bulb yield of onion. The experiment was arranged in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications having six different levels of fertilizer doses i.e. T1 (Control), T2 (STB dose), T3 (STB + 15% extra of STB), T4 (STB + 30% extra of STB), T5 (STB + 45% extra of STB) and T6 (Farmer’s practice). The nutrient management treatments positively influenced plant height, leaf length, number of leaves plant-1 , bulb diameter, marketable yield and total yield per hectare. The best results with regard to number of leaves plant-1 (5.98), bulb length (7.21 cm), bulb diameter (5.52 cm), single bulb weight (43.07g) and bulb yield (19.83 tha-1 ) were obtained from the treatment T5 . Considering the yield contributing parameters in onion production, the most suitable nutrient management package was STB + 45% extra of STB but the highest marginal benefit cost ratio (7.60) was obtained in T2 (STB dose). N, P, K, S, Zn, B doses of 120, 54, 78, 30, 4.2, 1.5 kg ha-1 , respectively is recommended for maximum onion bulb production in this location. Key words: Yield, onion, nutrient

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