SCREENING OF LOCAL AND EXOTIC ONION (ALLIUM CEPA L.) CULTIVARS FOR SEED PRODUCTION POTENTIALITY

An experiment was conducted aiming to find out the seed production potentiality of 19 local and exotic onion cultivars. The analysis of variance showed significant differences among the genotypes for all characters except sprouting percentage, number of flowers per umbel and number of umbel per bulb. Maximum number of days to 50% bolting (52.67) was exhibited by the genotype G2 and minimum by G6 (27.00 days). The larger bulb size after harvest was obtained from G14 and G19 (18.11 g). Genotypes G4 and G11 required the maximum (16.66) and the minimum (9.00) days for 100% sprouting, respectively. The highest stalk length was found in the genotype G1 (67.23 cm) and the lowest in G8 (38.47 cm). Maximum number (5.75) of stalk was produced by the genotype G7 and minimum number (2.09) of stalk by the genotype G11. The genotype G1 produced the highest number of seeds per umbel (1395.92) and seed yield per plant (4.29 g). The lowest (0.45 g) seed yield per plant and maximum bulb weight was obtained by the genotype G8