Electric field application for seed quality enhancement in onion (Allium cepa L.) during storage

Abstract

Electric fields can be used to prevent the quantitative and qualitative losses due to several biotic and abiotic factors during storage as a non-chemical method in agriculture. An experiment was conducted with two onion lots viz., old (previous year harvested) and new (freshly harvested) treated with electric field with different power levels and time periods along with control and stored in 700 guage plastic bag at ambient storage conditions. The germination percentage and vigour index were evaluated at 30 days interval. It was observed that the microwave seed treatment to onion seed had beneficial effect for improvement of seed quality and storability. The seed treated with microwave 60% power level for 20 sec. was found better than other treatments. The old seed lot gave higher response to electric field application. However, the higher germination and other seed quality parameters were reported better in freshly harvested seed lot.