Response of soil and foliar micronutrients application on nutrient uptake and seed yield of onion

A field experiment was conducted to study the effect of soil and foliar micronutrients application on nutrient uptake and raw and economic seed yield of onion grown on silty clay textural soil (Typic Haplustept) for three years during rabi seasons of 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2021-22. The treatments comprised of T1: Application of only GRDF (100:50:50 kgha-1 N: P2O5: K2O + 20 tha-1 FYM and treatment of T2 to T7 were, T1+ soil application of zinc sulphate, ferrous sulphate and borax, two foliar sprays of Government micro grade II and Phule micro grade II (A and B) along with GRDF respectively. The pooled results revealed that the treatment of (GRDF + Two foliar sprays of Phule micro grade II ‘B’ @ 0.5%) significantly increased in average number of umbels per plant (9.68), raw seed yield (6.11 qha-1), economic seed yield (5.80 qha-1), total uptake of N (50.63 kgha-1), P (16.60 kgha-1), K (59.21 kgha-1), Fe (1781 gha-1), Zn (926 gha-1), Mn (1435 gha-1), Cu (92.07 gha-1), B (99 gha-1) and higher returns per rupees (B:C ratio of 5.69). The soil available phosphorus (10.03 kgha-1) status significantly increased under the treatment of GRDF + Soil application of ZnSO4 @ 20 Kg ha-1. However, Soil available N, K, DTPA-Mn and Cu showed non-significant result. DTPA-Fe showed significantly increased (4.74 mgkg-1) under the treatment T3 i.e. GRDF + Soil application of ZnSO4 @ 20 Kg ha-1 Over all the treatments. DTPA-Zn was found significant sufficient status (0.64 mgkg-1) in treatment T2. Available boron was found significant sufficient status (0.56 mg/kg) in treatment T4 over all the treatments under study. However, the treatment of T7 recorded higher net monetary return (Rs 493672/-) and B:C ratio (5.69).