Effect of vermicompost and compost tea on the growth and yield of onions

Abstract

Relatively low onion yield in Sub Saharan Africa is attributed to several limitations such as poor soil fertility. For that reason, the field experiment was conducted to test the effectiveness of vermicompost and compost tea on onion growth and yield. The soil used had 52% sand, 30% silt, 18% clay and a pH of 7.17. Complete Randomized Design (CRD) with 3 replications was used. The results indicated that the organic and inorganic fertilizers significantly affected the height of the plant, leaf length, number of leaves, and marketable yield. Among the treatments, vermicompost tea was found to achieve the best marketable bulb yield of 48.3 tons/Ha. Compost tea produced 28.7 tons/Ha, while inorganic fertilizer attained 21.6 tons/Ha and the control produced the lowest yield of 2.2 tons/Ha. Therefore, vermicompost and compost tea can be used to boost the yield of onions.