Quality and Nutrient Uptake of Onion (Allium cepa L.) as Influenced by Water Regimes, Land Configurations and Mulching

Background: Scanty availability of irrigation water in the region is one of the major limitations in cultivation of horticultural crops. Land configurations and plastic mulching has been found to be an effective technique for increasing the profitability of bulb crops. The objective of this study was to find the effect of water regimes, land configuration and mulching on growth, yield and water use efficiency of onion (Allium cepa L.) under the soil and agro climatic conditions of Western Rajasthan. Methods: The experiment was conducted at Instructional farm, Department of Horticulture, AU, Jodhpur during rabi season of 2020-21 and 2021-22. There were three factors studied in this experiment one major factor viz., A) Water regimes include three levels (I1-1.0 IW/CPE, I2-0.8 IW/CPE and I3-0.6 IW/CPE ratio) and two sub factors viz., A) Land configuration include two levels (B1- Flat bed configuration and B2- Raised bed configuration) and B) Mulching include four levels (M1- No-mulch, M2- Black mulch, M3- Silver-black mulch and M4- White-black mulch). Overall there were twenty four treatment combinations. Result: On the basis of pooled analysis, the dry matter content, double bulb, leaf chlorophyll content, NPK and S content were significantly affected by different water regimes, land configurations and mulch types.