ABSTRACT
The experiment was conducted between November 2021 to May 2022 in the Screen House of the Department of Crop Science Farm, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Benin, Benin City to investigate the effect of propagation methods and fertilizer application on the productivity of onion (Allium cepa L.). The trial was laid out as a 2 x 4 factorial fitted in a completely randomized design (CRD) in 3 replications. The treatment consists of 2 propagation methods (Seeds-S and Bulb-B) and four fertilizer rates (R1-120mls, R2-160mls, R3-200mls R4- 240mls). The parameters evaluated includes Plant height, Number of leaves, Stem diameter, Leaf area, Number of bulb per plant, Bulb diameter, Average bulb length, Bulb fresh weight and Bulb dry weight. The result showed that growth and yield of onion is significantly affected by the propagation methods and fertilizer application. There was significant difference in plant height, number of leaves, stem diameter and leaf area, B/120mls and B/ 160mls had the highest plant height (27.00), B/120mls had the highest number of leaves (22.33), SR3 had the lowest plant height (0.01), number of leaves (0.01), stem diameter (0.01) and leaf area (0.01). Whereas BR4 had the highest stem diameter (0.50) and leaf area (20.06).
Although propagation method had significant difference in vegetative characters and there was significant difference in yield as bulb(B) having highest number of bulbs per plant (B/120ml - 14.00), bulb diameter (B/200mls -0.85), average bulb length (B/200mls-1.10), bulb fresh weight (B/120mls-68.11) and bulb dry weigh (B/240mls-7.84) performance more better compared to the seeds(S). Propagation method of using bulb should be more encouraged using rate 1(120mls) in this locality.
