Quality attributes and shelf life of onion in response to application of boron

Abstract

An investigation was performed at the experimental field of Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Kashmir (SKUAST-K) during Rabi 2015-16 and 2016-17 to find out the effect of different levels of boron on quality attributes and shelf life of onion. The experiment was tested in Randomized completely block design with three replications. Four levels of boron viz., boron (B), B0 (control or no zinc), B1 (0.500 kg ha-1), B2 (1.000 kg ha-1) and B3 (1.500 kg ha-1). The observations were recorded on quality attributes from 10 randomly selected samples of each treatment while observations regarding shelf were carried out after storage of 10 kg bulbs in each treatment for three months. Pooled analysis revealed that maximum values for quality traits like protein content (12.31 percent), vitamin C content (13.16 mg 100-1g), T.S.S (13.18 oBrix), pyruvic acid (7.59 μmol g-1) and dry matter content (15.01 percent) were recorded with B3 (1.500 kg B ha-1) treatment followed by B2 (1.000 kg B ha-1). Significantly lower values of total weight loss (30.62 percent), physiological weight loss (13.37 percent), sprouting (8.54 percent) and rotting (8.71 percent) were observed with B3 (1.500 kg B ha-1).