PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY OF BULBOUS CROPS

Vani firdosbhai b.

7567760076

MASTER’s SEMINAR

Common name Botanical name Chromosome number (2n)

Onion Allium cepa L. 16

Multiplier onion A. cepa var. aggregatum L. 16

Garlic A. sativum L. 16

Leek A. ampeloprasum L. var.

Porrum (L.)

32(4x)

Japanese onion A. fistulosum 16

Tree onion A. cepa L. var. viviparaum 16

Shallot A. cepa var. ascalonicum L. 16

Chive A.schenoprasum L. 16, 24,32

Chinese chive A. tuberosum 32(4x)

Kurrat A. kurrat 32(4x)

LIST

GARLICKINGDOM: Plantae

CLADE: Angiosperms

CLADE: Monocots

ORDER: Asparagales

FAMILY: Alliaceae

SUBFAMILY: Allioideae

GENUS: Allium

SPECIES: A. sativum

Garlic (Allium sativum) is one of the important bulbcrops grown and used as a spice or condimentthroughout India.

The compound bulb of garlic consists of severalsmall bulblets or cloves.

It is rich in proteins, phosphorous, potassium,calcium, magnesium and carbohydrates.

Contains allicin and principal ingredient is diallyldisulpide

Garlic helps indigestion and cholesterol in humanblood.

Garlic is generally cultivated in M.P, Rajasthan,Gujrat, Orissa, Punjab and Haryana.

In India, it is grown in an area of 1.71 lakh hectareswith a production of 9.23 lakh tons and 5.38 tonsper hectare productivity. In Himachal Pradesh,Garlic is number one bulbous crop grown in an areaof 3,799 hectares with total production of 61,049MT (Anonymous, 2014).

INTRODUCTION AND IMPORTANCE

SOIL

According to Rao and Purewal (1957) and Joshi (1961),

garlic requires medium black to well drained loamy soils

rich in humus, with fairly good content of potash.

The optimum soil pH for garlic is between 6 and 7.

The crop raised on sandy or loose soil does not keep for

long and the bulbs too are lighter in weight.

In heavy soils, the bulbs produced are deformed, and

during harvesting many bulbs are broken so they do not

keep well in storage.

Highly alkaline and saline soils are not suitable for garlic

cultivation.

CLIMATIC REQUIREMENT

Garlic is a frost-hardy plant, requires cool and moist climateduring growth period and warm dry weather during maturity.

There are two types of varieties = long days and short daysvarieties.

In India short day types are grown.

Cool growing period gives more yield than warm.

Garlic should be planted early to promote vegetative growthunder short day conditions and cool temperature.

It survives well in areas with 600-1200 mm annual rainfallwith temperatures ranging between 5-25ºC to 25-40ºC andcritical day length for bulbing is 12 hours..

Garlic is propagated through cloves.

The size of clove can greatly influence thegrowth and yield of garlic (Sultana et al.,1997).

The expression of life cycle, the ontogenyof the phenotype and the strategy ofbulbing depend on the size of cloves,which affect the final yield of garlic (Batenet al., 1989).

The large mother bulb produced bulbshaving average diameter and weight of2.21cm and 9.87g, respectively comparedto 2.07cm and 8.43g produced by the smallmother bulbs (Couto, 1958).

PROPAGATION

Seed clove size had significant influence on all the growth and yield

parameters. Higher yield was recorded from large sized clove

(16.87t/ha) than that of medium (15.69t/ha) and small (13.10 t/ha)

ones (Alam et al., 2010).

Main effect of seed clove size on growth and yield of

garlic bulb under dry land condition at harvest.Treatmen

ts

Fresh wt.

of bulb

(g)

Length of

bulb

(cm)

Diameter

of bulb

(cm)

No. of

cloves/bul

b

Yield/plot

(kg)

Yield

(t/ha)

T1 34.40 4.34 4.20 31.00 2.53 16.87

T2 32.00 3.95 3.95 26.25 2.35 15.69

T3 27.55 3.65 3.55 22.60 1.97 13.10

PLANTING

Seed rate of 500-700kg/ha.

Place cloves 4 inches apart and 2 inchesdeep, in their upright position (the wideroot side facing down and pointed endfacing up).

Four methods can be used for plantingi.e. dibbling, furrow, broad casting andseed drill.

SPACING: For bigger cloves: 15x10cm.

The lowest yield bio mass (10.6) wasrecorded in treatment one planted with 0cm plant spacing. While the highestyield bio mass(32.66) was recorded intreatment three planted with 15 cm plantspacing(Hussen et al., 2014).

• Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

AUGUST-NOVEMBER

• North IndiaSEPTEMBER-NOVEMBER

• Hilly regionsMARCH-

APRIL

• Gujrat

• West-Bengal, OrissaOCTOBER-

NOVEMBER

RECOMMENDED VARIETIES

YAMUNA SAFED-2

AGRIFOUND

WHITE

YAMUNA SAFED- 1

TSS 41% dry matter 42.78%

and good storer. The yield is 130

q/ha.

The variety is tolerant to insect pests and

diseases like purple blotch, stemphylium

blight and onion thrips. TSS 38%, dry

matter 39.5% and good storer. Yield 150-

175 q/ha.

TSS 38-40%, dry matter 40-41%.

Average yield 150-200 q/ha. The variety

is recommended for Northern India.

YAMUNA SAFED-3

AGRIFOUND PARVATI

YAMUNA

SAFED-4

15-16 number of cloves per bulb TSS

38.42%, dry matter 39-43%, medium storer.

Average yield 175-200 q/ha. The variety is

suitable for export.

Yield 200-250 q/ha. Storage quality is

better than Yamuna Safed-3. Suitable for

exports.

The variety is long day type and as such is

suitable for cultivation in mid and high hills

of Northern states. Average yield 175-225

q/ha, medium storer.

NEW RELEASED VARIETIES: Yamuna Safed 5, VL Lahsun -2, VL

Garlic- 1

VARIETIES FOR H.P.: Agrifound White and Agrifound Parvati, Solan

Selection, Large Segmented, Selection -1

MANURE AND FERTILIZERS

Garlic responds very well to organic manures. For normal soil10-50 tons of FYM, 60-125kg N, 35-65kg P and 0-100kg K/hafor different parts of country( Thumburaj and Singh).

Micronutrients also increase its yield potential.

Increasing nitrogen level up to 100kg ha-1 resulted in longerleaves, greater number of leaves per plant, maximum singlebulb weight, and bulb yield per plant (7.08kg) and Bulb yieldha-1 (6746.03kg) . Further more, increase in nitrogen levels hadno appreciable effect on the performance of garlic (Kakar etal., 2002).

Plants under zinc sulphate @ 0.25% recorded maximumplant height (61.72cm), number of roots (102.56), lengthof cloves (3.05 cm) and neck thickness (1.08 cm). Borax@ 0.2% was found most effective for yield improvementof garlic followed by zinc sulphate @ 0.25% (Chanchanet al., 2013).

Application of Zn at 5 kg/ha along with blanket dose ofN, P, K, and S fertilizers would be profitable for garliccultivation (Nasreen et al., 2009).

Abbas et al. (1994) studied the effect of N (0, 50, 100 and150 kg/ha) and K (0, 30, 60 and 90 kg/ha) on local garliccultivar. Highest yield and profits of 97.32 and 96.26q/ha were observed with the application of 100 N/kg and90 kg K2O/ha.

IRRIGATION Water requirement for garlic 425 mm.

In general, garlic needs irrigation at 8 days intervals during

vegetative growth and 10-15 days during maturation.

As the crop matures, stop irrigation to allow field to dry out first.

Continued irrigation as the crop matures causes the roots and

bulb scales to rot. This discolour the bulbs exposes outer cloves

and decreases the market value of bulbs.

Irrigation at very long spell of drought results in splitting of

bulbs.

Excessive irrigation results in sprouting.

Using of drip irrigation causes both decreasing weeds and

increasing yield in garlic cultivars (Mohammad Ghanbari, 2013).

Maximum yield of 4,110.2 kg/ha was recorded from the 4 day

irrigation interval while,1,835.4 kg/ha was recorded from the 8

– day irrigation interval (Aminu K. Doro, 2012).

Bulb yield, bulb weight, number of cloves/bulb and clove weight

as affected by irrigation interval for the two years combined.

Treatment

Irrigation

Interval(days)

Bulb

Yield (kg ha)

Bulb Weight (g) No. of

Cloves(No.)

Clove Weight

(g)

2 2004.6 8.6 10.9 0.7

4 4110.2 16.7 16.1 1.0

6 2085.5 11.6 14.4 0.9

8 1835.4 8.9 9.8 0.6

INTERCULTURE

First weeding is done one month after planting and

second one month after first weeding.

Hoeing the crop just before the formation of bulbs

(about two and a half months after sowing) helps

in setting of bigger sized well filled bulbs.

Pendimethaline @ 3.5 litres/ha + 1 hand weeding

gives good control.

The maximum bulb yield was found in weed free

treatment, followed by Pendimethaline, whereas,

minimum bulb yield was recorded in control.

Therefore, manual weeding throughout season or

the use of Pendimethaline @ 2.5 L/ ha is

recommended for getting higher garlic yield

(Rahman et al., 2012).

HARVESTING AND YIELD

Garlic becomes ready for

harvesting when its tops turn

yellowish or brownish and

show signs of drying up and

bend over.

It takes about 4-5 months after

planting to reach maturity.

The yields of bulbs vary from

100 to 200 q/ha depending

upon variety and regions.

CURING: is an additional process of drying to remove theexcess moisture for about a week in field and to allow the bulbsto become compact and go into dormant stage.

SORTING and GRADING: The thick- necked, splitted, injuredand diseased bulbs with hollow cloves are sorted out. Sizegrading is done after sorting.

PACKAGING: In India, garlic bulbs are packed in open meshjute bags for domestic use. Nylon-netted bags used for packingand further storage cause minimum losses in storage.

STORAGE: Domestically garlic is stored above 18ºC andin dry condition to keep it dormant. Thoroughly curedgarlic bulbs keep fairly well in ordinary ventilated room.Bulbs are stored for 6-7 months at relatively humidityhigher than 70% at any temperature will develop mouldsand start root growth. Cold storage of garlic is possible at0-2.2°C temperature and 60-70% relative humidity.

PHYSIOLOGICAL DISORDERS

Sprouting is seen when there are

winter rains or excessive soil moisture

and nitrogen supply.

Early-planting also causes sprouting.

Splitting is due to delayed harvesting

or irrigation after long spell of drought.

It was observed that rubberification

was totally controlled by application of

micronutrients i.e. zinc sulphate and

ammonium molybdate. It was also

controlled by neem cake insecticides

and growth regulator like GA.

KINGDOM: Plantae

CLADE: Angiosperms

CLADE: Monocots

ORDER: Asparagales

FAMILY: Alliaceae

SUBFAMILY: Allioideae

GENUS: Allium

SPECIES: A. cepa

Onion is one of the most important commercial vegetable crops inIndia.

Grown in rabi and kharif season.

Maharastra, Gujarat, Uttra Pradesh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh arethe major onion growing states.

The total annual area is estimated to be about 1203.57 thousandhectare and production is about 19401.63 metric tonnes. InHimachal Pradesh area is about 2.34 thousand hectare and 43.71MT production (NHB, 2014).

Onion is valued for its bulbs having characteristic odour, flavourand pungency, which is due to the presence of a volatile oil – allyl-propyl-disulphide.

India is the second largest producer of onion in the world.

INTRODUCTION AND

IMPORTANCE

Onion is used for treating digestion problems including

loss of appetite, upset stomach, and for

treating heart and blood vessel problems including chest

pain (angina) and high blood pressure; and for preventing

atherosclerosis.

It is also used for treating sore mouth and throat,

bronchitis, whooping

cough, bronchitis, asthma, dehydration, intestinal gas,

parasitic worms, and diabetes.

Some people use it as a diuretic to increase urine output.

VARIETIES

The onion varieties have been classified on the basis of size

and skin colour. According to classification the onion can be

divided in to two groups:

Common onion

Multiplier onion

VARIETY SOURCE CHARACTERS

Pusa Red,Pusa Ratnar and

Pusa Madhavi

IARI Yield 25-40 tonnes/ha, good

storage quality.

Punjab Selection, Punjab Red

Round, Punjab Nayora

PAU, Ludhiana Yield 20-30 tonnes/ha.

N 53, N 2-4-1 Niphad Yield 15-20tonnes/ha, kharif

season (BOTH)

Baswant 780 MPKV Yield 20-25 tonnes/ha, kharif

Arka Niketan, Arka Kalyan

(KHARIF) and Arka Bindu

IIHR Yield 25-33 tonnes/ha

Agrifound Light Red,

Agrifound Dark Red

(KHARIF) and Agrifound

Rose

NHRDF YIELD 20-30 tonnes/ha

Udaipur 101,103 UDAIPUR Univ. Yield 20-30 tonnes/ha

Hissar II HAU, Hissar Yield 20 tonnes/ha

Kalyanpur Red Round CSAUA&T, Kanpur 20 tonnes/ha

RED COLOURED

VARIETIES

WHITE COLOURED

VARIETIES

Pusa White Flat, Pusa White

Round

IARI Yield 30-35 tonnes/ha, TSS

11-13%

Punjab 48, Punjab White PAU, Ludhiana Yield 30 tonnes/ha suitable

for dehydration purpose

Udaipur 102 Udaipur Univ. Yield 25-30 tonnes/ha, TSS

12%, suitable for

dehydration

N 257-9-1 Niphad Yield 25-30 tonnes/ha,

suitable for dehaydration.

YELLOW COLOURED

ONION

Early Grano, Brown Spanish

(LD)

IARI Yields 30-60 tonnes/ha

Arka Pitamber IIHR Good keeping quality and

free from splits and bolters

Phule Swarna MPKV TSS 11.5%, yields 24

tonnes/ha

MULTIPLIER ONION

Co 1,2,3,4 TNAU, Coimbatore Yield 12-18 tonnes/ha

MDU 1 Madurai Campus of TNAU 15 tonnes/ha

Agrifound Red Dindigal, NHRDF 18-20 tonnes/ha

VARIETIES SUITABLE FOR H.P.

Patna Red, N 53(Kharif),

Agrifound Dark Red, Brown

Spanish, Palam Lohit, Nasik

Red

Multiplier onion or potato onion(Allium cepa var. aggregatum) –producing small underground bulbs bornein clusters and generally propagatedthrough small bulbs. Mainly used forseasoning curries.

Shallot (Allium cepa var. ascalonicum) –Produces bulbs in clusters on surface ofsoil. This perennial onion rarely producesseeds and is propagated through bulbs.

Tree onion or Egyptian onion (Alliumcepa var. viviparaum / proliferum) –This viviparous plant produces clusterbetween 2-16 bulbletes at the top of thestem and resistant to all known pests anddiseases of onion.

Onion prefers a well drained, loose and friable soil rich inhumus.

It is sensitive to high acidity and alkalinity and the ideal pH is5.8 to 6.5.

When pH drops below 5.5, magnesium and molybdenumavailability drops and above 6.5, zinc, manganese and ironbecome deficient.

Sandy soil needs more and frequent irrigation and favourearly maturity.

In heavy soils, the bulbs produced may be deformed. Onioncrop can be grown successfully on heavy soil with applicationof organic manure prior to planting.

SOIL

CLIMATE

The best performance can be obtained in a mild weather without theextremes of cold and heat and excessive rainfall (not more than 75-100cm)with 70% relative humidity.

Plants at early stage can withstand the freezing temperature.

Optimum temperature for seed germination should be 20-25ºC.

Low temperature (13ºC-21ºC) + short photoperiods = vegetative growth.

Relatively high temperature(20ºC-25ºC) + long photoperiods = bulbdevelopment.

25-30ºC for bulb maturation.

Low temperature (<15ºC) for long period in bulb crop favours boltingwhich is not desirable.

Long day varieties do not bulb under shot days where as short dayvarieties if planted under long days will develop early bulbs.

There were no blubing at photoperiods below 11h, but bulbingthereafter increased progressively with increase in day length(Okporie et al., 2008).

METHODS OF PLANTING

The following three methods of plantingare followed depending on soil,topography, climatic conditions andeconomic aspects:

1. Raising seedlings and transplanting

2. Planting bulbs directly in the field.

3. Broadcasting or drilling of seeds directlyin the field.

PLANTING TIME (INDIA)SEASON TIME OF

SOWING

TIME OF

TRANSPLANTING

HARVESTING

TME

NORTH INDIA

Rainy (kharif) May-June July-August November-December

Winter (rabi) October-November December-January May-June

MAHARASHTRA AND PARTS OF GUJRAT

Kharif May-June July-August October-December

Late kharif August-September September-October January-March

Rabi November-

December

December-January April-June

TAMILNADU, KARNATAKA AND ANDHRA PRADESH

Early rainy(kharif) April-May May-June August

Rainy (kharif) May-June July-August October-November

Winter (rabi) September-October November-December March-April

SEED RATE= 8-10kg/ha

SET

S

These are small dry onion bulbs produced in the previous year.

These mature 3-4 weeks earlier.

Commercially used to produce early green onions but also used

for dry bulb production

SPACING

15cm between rows and 5-8cm between plant to plant.

Transplanting on ridges is ideal for kharif onion crop.

The combination of 20cm × 10cm spacing with 2cm depth of

planting gave significant higher yield (12.82 t/ha).

Effects of spacing on the growth, yield and yield components of

onion

Treatments Bulb diameter

(cm)

Fresh weight of

bulb (g)

Dry matter

content of bulb

(%)

Bulb yield

kg/plot

SPACING

S1

(20cmx20cm)

4.25a 37.86a 10.90a 1.29b

S2

(20cmx15cm)

3.86b 32.17b 9.56b 1.34b

S3

(20cmx10cm)

3.47c 24.14c 9.09c 1.45a

Sikder et al.,2010

Manures and fertilizers

Onion is a heavy feeder of nitrogen and potash and a crop

yielding 20-30 t/ha requires 60-150kg N, 35-150kg P2O5

and 25-125kg K2O, Cu and B @13.4kg and 1.8kg/ha are

beneficial in increasing the yield.

The K requirement of onion plants increases with yield as

its functions are linked to photosynthesis (Greenwood &

Stone., 1998).

Excess application of N causes excessive vegetative

growth, delayed maturity, increase susceptibility to

diseases, reduce dry matter contents and storability and

ultimately reduce yield and quality bulbs (Brewster, 1994;

Sørensen and Grevsen, 2001).

IRRIGATION

Onion is mainly grown as a irrigated cropin India.

Requirement of water varies with stages ofcrop.

One irrigation is necessary immediatelyafter transplanting.

In kharif season= 8-10 irrigations.

In late kharif crop-12-15 irrigations.

In rabi crop- 15-20 irrigations are given.

At bulb formation stage irrigation isnecessary.

In rabi season irrigation is stopped whentop mature and start falling.

In kharif season it should be stopped 10days before harvesting.

3 and 6 days irrigation interval are most suitable for onion

production in the study area. Similarly, plant density of 500,000

plant/ha gives greater yield advantage(Muhammad et al., 2011).

Onion Bulb Yield (t/ha) as Affected by Irrigation Interval x Plant

Density Interaction in the Two Years Combined.

Treatments Plant density (plants/ha)

Irrigation 160,000 200,000 250,000 350,000 500,000

3 10.02 10.31 11.91 11.28 13.50

6 10.35 10.42 12.97 12.91 13.66

9 9.71 9.87 11.34 11.33 12.05

12 8.01 8.11 9.411 9.33 10.12

WEEDING AND INTERCULTURE

The critical period of crop-weed competition is between 4-8weeks.

Application of Alachlor ( Lasso) @ 2litres/ha or Pandimethalin(Stomp) @ 3 litres/ha in 750 litres of water before transplanting isbeneficial for controlling weeds.

3 weeding are sufficient to harvest economic crop if performed 30,50 and 75 days after transplanting.

Three hand hoeings proved to be the best weed control practice. The herbicide pendimethaline performed equally good with the 3 hoeings (Jilani et al., 2007).

The performance of pendimethalin was the best among all the herbicidal treatments followed by s-metolachlor. Therefore, pendimethalin is recommended @ 1.32 kg a.i ha-1 for significantly reducing the weeds population and enhancing the bulb yield in onion(Marwat et al., 2005).

HARVESTING AND YIELD

Harvest rabi onion one week after 50-70% neck fall. In kharif season, sincetops do not fall, soon after the colour ofleaves changes to slightly yellow andtops starts drying, the bulbs areharvested.

Harvesting at this stage results in higheryield, longer storage life of bulbs andless neck rot.

Traditional method of harvesting onionsin New Zealand, where onions are liftedat 60–80% top‐down, the bulbs arefield‐cured, and the foliage is removedafter curing, is the simplest method andbest compromise to ensure postharvestonion quality and successfulstorage(Wright et al., 2001).

To hasten the maturity process,

the tops can be rolled down with

light weight roller when about

10% of the tops have fallen

naturally.

Late harvesting results in thick

necked bulb, sunken and also

poor storage life.

The average yield of onion bulb

is about 300- 400 quintals in

rabi season and 200-250

quintals in kharif season.

DRYING AND CURING: Drying= removal of excess moisture, CURING=

additional process aiding the development of skin colour and to remove field heat

before bulbs are stored.

In north India: for kharif season curing is required for 2-3 weeks with tops and for

rabi, bulbs are cured in field for 3-5 days in windrow method, tops are cut, leaving 2-

2.5cm above the bulb and then bulbs are again cured in shade for 7-10 days to

remove the field heat.

GRADING: Thick necked, bolted, doubles, injured and

decayed bulbs are picked out.

STORAGE:At all temperatures there was a gradual loss in weight,

the loss at 32.3-35ºC was approximately twice than that at 0ºC. The

onion bulbs can be stored at temperature of 23.9-29.4ºC or higher

for 5-6 months without sprouting and without excessive loss of

weight. In general the onion that has been stored at 0ºC sprouted

much sooner after removal from storage than those stored at 33.2-

35ºC. A temperature of 0ºC and arelative humidity of 65-70% has

been recommended for successful storage.

1) Bolting: It refers to the emergence ofseed stalk prior to time of theirformation and adversely affects theformation and development of bulbs.

The restricted and poor vegetativegrowth may also leads to bolting.

It can be rectified by adjusting thetime of transplanting in such a waythat the crop may exposed tomoderate temperature at bulbing.

PHYSIOLOGICAL DISODER

2) Splitting/Doubling:

Adverse environment condition andimbalanced nutrient supply causessplitting and doubling of bulbs.