International Journal of Agricultural Science Research Vol. 4(7), pp. 140-145, July 2015 ISSN 2327-3321 ©2015 Academe Research Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Influence of planting techniques and potting media on the growth and yield of onion (Allium cepa L)

Nwokwu, G.N* and Ekwu, L.G

Department of Crop Production and Landscape Management, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources Management, Ebonyi State University, P.M.B 053, Abakaliki, Nigeria.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: g.nwokwu@yahoo.com.

Accepted 1 June, 2015

Abstract

An experiment was conducted in 2010 to determine the influence of planting techniques and different potting media on the growth and yield of onion (Allium cepa L) in the screen house of the Department of Crop Production, and Landscape Management, Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki, Nigeria. The experimental design was a 2×8 factorial experiment in a completely randomized design (CRD). The treatment used were two planting techniques (transplanting and direct seeding) and eight potting media mixture such as T1= sandy soil (control), T2= burnt rice husk + poultry manure + municipal waste at ratio of 1:1:1, T3= burnt rice husk + poultry manure + municipal waste at ratio of 2:2:1, T4= municipal waste + poultry manure + burnt rice husk at ratio of 2:2:1, T5= swine manure + municipal waste + poultry manure at ratio of 2:2:1, T6= swine manure + municipal waste at ratio of 4:1, T7= poultry manure + swine manure at ratio of 4:1 and T8= burnt rice husk + poultry manure at ratio of 4:1. The treatments were replicated three times with each replication having 16 pots that gave a total of 48 experimental pots. The pots were irrigated twice daily (morning and evening) to make moisture available for the plants. Agronomic characteristics measured were: leaf length, number of leaves, bulb diameter, fresh weight of bulb, total yield, root length, number of bulb, etc. The results indicated that both potting media and planting techniques have significant (p=0.05) effect on leaf length, number of leaves, number of bulb, bulb diameter and root length. Fresh weight of leaves, fresh weight of bulb and total yield recorded non-significant difference in both treatments. Transplant technique gave the highest value in all the parameters except fresh weight of bulb, while direct seeding techniques recorded the least results. Also, T5 (swine manure + municipal waste + poultry manure) recorded the highest value in most of the parameters under study except number of leaves and root length, while T1 (control) and T8 (burnt rice husk + poultry manure) gave the least results.

Key words: Potting media, planting techniques, onion, growth, yield.