Effects of time of water stress on flowering, seed yield and seed quality of common onion (Allium cepa L.) under the arid tropical conditions of Sudan

M.M.A. El Balla, Abdelbagi A. Hamid and A.H.A. Abdelmageed

Agricultural Water Management, 2013, vol. 121, issue C, 149-157

Abstract: An experiment was conducted for two consecutive seasons to investigate the effect of water stress on seed yield and seed quality of onion (Allium cepa L.). Water stress was imposed on the plants at four stages of reproductive growth, namely, bolting, flowering, seed formation and seed maturation stage, respectively. Watering was withheld for an interval of 2 weeks only once for every treatment “growth stage” during the first season, while during the second season, the interval of watering was extended to 3 weeks. Numbers of leaves per plant, umbel diameter, number of florets per umbel, number of seeds per florets; number of seed stalks per plant, 1000 seed weight per plant and seed yield and seed quality were recorded. Water stress at any stage of reproductive growth significantly reduced seed yield and its effect was variable depending on plant growth stage. Based on 1000 seed weight per seed head, bolting followed by anthesis were the most sensitive growth stages during the first season. Water stress at the time of anthesis significantly decreased the diameter of seed head when compared to control. The average number of seeds per floret was significantly decreased by stressing at bolting compared to all treatments. In the second season, seed formation stage was the most critical only followed by anthesis stage. When seed yield per plant was measured, the most sensitive stage was bolting. Number of florets per umbel and umbel diameter were reduced by water stress. In the first season, 1000 seed weight was not affected, but in the second season, it was significantly reduced with water stress at seed formation stage. Seed germination and field emergence were not affected. However, water stress at bolting in the second season resulted in lower seed quality. Some stress treatments were observed to promote seed germination and seedling emergence.

Keywords: Allium cepa L.; Arid conditions; Common onion; Drought stress; Seed set; Seed yield; Seed quality; Water deficit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378377413000371
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agiwat:v:121:y:2013:i:c:p:149-157

DOI: 10.1016/j.agwat.2013.02.002

Access Statistics for this article

Agricultural Water Management is currently edited by B.E. Clothier, W. Dierickx, J. Oster and D. Wichelns

More articles in Agricultural Water Management from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().