Effects of moisture stress at different growth stages on the performance of onion (Allium cepa L.) varieties

Abstract

Climate change is imparting negatively on global crop production and compromising food security worldwide. To breed for moisture stress tolerance in any given crop, it is important to know the precise water needs of the plants and the growth stage at which moisture stress affect the crop most. Hence, this research aimed at determining the response of onion varieties to moisture stress at different stages of growth. The field experiment was carried out at Maizube Farms Limited field, Minna, Niger State (latitude 903817.10N; longitude 6032i04.20E). The treatments consisted of five varieties of onion (red creole, sivan, prema, wuyan makwarwa, wuyan bijimi) and moisture stress at three growth stages of the plant (flag leaf emergence to two true leaves stage (10-50 days post seeding (PS)), three to seven leaves stage (50-90 days PS), bulb initiation to bulb enlargement stage (90-170 days PS) as well as irrigation throughout the growth stages on a daily basis and at 3 days interval. The 5 x 5 factorial experiments were laid out in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications. Data were collected on growth and yield parameters. The result obtained shows that the varieties responded to moisture stress in similar ways. Drought stress significantly reduced the growth and yield of the onion varieties tested at all the growth stages compared to plants watered throughout the growth stages at 3 days interval which produced the highest number of leaves, plant height and bulb yield. However, the effect of the drought stress was more critical at the early growth stage (flag leaf to two true leaf stage) reducing bulb yield by 57.74%. Similarly, daily irrigation induced flood stress in onion and significantly reduced onion bulb yield by 59.22%