Growth regulators efficiency in onion planting material preparataion

Abstract

Winter onion culture compares favorably with spring production with early harvest dates. In the conditions of the Krasnodar Territory, the first products arrive at the end of May-the first decade of June. However, obtaining a guaranteed harvest largely depends on the plants winter hardiness, which is determined not only by the prevailing conditions of overwintering, but also by the elements of growing technology, which include pre-planting preparation of seed onion. The article presents the results of studies on the influence of growth regulators used for soaking the sowing before planting for winter hardiness, the timing of the phenological phases onset, the dynamics of the leaf surface and bulbs growth, the size and structure of the crop. Seed onion was soaked before planting in solutions of three growth regulators (Radix, Radipharm, Rostok) for 12 hours, the control was a variant with planting material soaking in water. The seed onion of the first group (0.8-1.5 cm in diameter) was planted in early November, with 45 cm row spacing and 444.4 thousand pieces / ha planting density. It was found that Radix and Radipharm preparations significantly increased onion plants winter hardiness, the percentage of overwintered plants was 88.2-88.7% (80.3% under control), accelerated the ripening time of the crop (by 5-7 days), contributed to the activation of the growth processes of the aboveground apparatus. The pre-planting preparation of the seed onion did not affect the shooting processes intensity, the percentage of shot plants in the experiment was 7.5-7.9. The highest total yield of onion (39.2 t/ha) and the yield of standard bulbs (36.8 t/ha) with an average bulb weight of 102.2 g was obtained with the use of Radix. The increase in the yield in this variant and the earlier products’ entering the market contributed to net income increase compared to the control by 79.9 thousand rubles. The use of growth regulators for seed soaking had no effect on the products’ standard, it varied between 93.5-93.9%..