Journal of Krishi Vigyan

Multiplier onion (Allium cepa var. aggregatum) is an important commercial vegetable crops grown in Ariyalur and Perambalur districts of Tamil Nadu. This multiplier onion is commonly propagated by bulbs rather than nursery raising and planting of seedlings. It is famous for its use in sambar preparation, an important south Indian dish. It produces small size bulbs, many in number usually up to 6 numbers, to form an aggregated cluster. In general the cost of cultivation of multiplier onion goes higher and the net income is reduced for farmers due to the high cost of bulb seed material during the peak season. In order to reduce the cost of cultivation, the cultivation of onion through seeds, nursery raising and transplanting techniques advocated to the farmers. A new variety CO (On) 5 developed by TNAU, Coimbatore and a variety Arka ujjwal developed by ICAR-IIHR, Bangalore for multiplier onion were evaluated along with check during 2017–18. The observations were recorded on five randomly selected plants and bulb yield on plot basis in each replication on growth, yield, quality parameters and BCR. Variety Arka ujjwal was the earliest in maturity in 88 duration followed by the variety CO (On) 5 matured in 94 days during rabi season. The highest bulb yield was recorded in CO (On) 5 onion variety 14.5t/ha followed by Arka ujjwal 12.88t/ha and local ottanchathiram variety 12.1t/ha during rabi season. The variety CO (On) 5 was found to be multiplier onion variety suitable for Ariyalur district of Tamil Nadu. It has 6 uniform bulblets per bulb which were attractive pink coloured bold size bulbs and oval in shape tapering towards neck with high yield.