EFFECT OF PLANTING DENSITY ON THE YIELD OF ONION

Present study evaluated the effect of planting density on yield and yield related traits of onion variety (Swat-1). The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with nine treatments and three replications. Planting densities showed a significant effect on various quantitative and qualitative characters such as plant height, number of leaves per bulb, bulb weight, small bulb, medium bulb and total yield. There was a decreasing trend in all the physiological characters such as survival percentage, plant height, number of leaves and bulb weight of onion with increasing plant density except total yield. Maximum yield (56.9, 55.7 and 53.8 t/ha) was recorded in T1 (5 cm), T2 (7.5 cm) and T3 (10 cm) with very small size bulb but at medium planting density better yield (53.5, 52.2 and 51.3 t/ha) with maximum bulb size was recorded in T4 (12.5 cm), T5 (15 cm) and T6 (17.5 cm) non-significantly different from T1, T2 and T3. Moreover total yield has negative and highly significant correlation with survival percentage, plant height, number of leaves and bulb weight, while it has positive and highly significant correlation with small size bulb. Based on these results T4, T5 and T6 are recommended to get maximum yield with medium size bulb.