- The document discusses the production technology of bulbous crops like onion and garlic. It provides details on various aspects of cultivation such as soil and climatic requirements, varieties grown in different regions of India, propagation, planting methods, manure and fertilizer application, irrigation practices, and physiological disorders. It also lists the botanical classification and importance of onion and garlic as important bulb crops in India.

1. PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY OF BULBOUS
CROPS
Vani firdosbhai b.
7567760076
MASTER’s SEMINAR

2. Common name Botanical name Chromosome number (2n)
Onion Allium cepa L. 16
Multiplier onion A. cepa var. aggregatum L. 16
Garlic A. sativum L. 16
Leek A. ampeloprasum L. var.
Porrum (L.)
32(4x)
Japanese onion A. fistulosum 16
Tree onion A. cepa L. var. viviparaum 16
Shallot A. cepa var. ascalonicum L. 16
Chive A.schenoprasum L. 16, 24,32
Chinese chive A. tuberosum 32(4x)
Kurrat A. kurrat 32(4x)
LIST

3. GARLIC
KINGDOM: Plantae
CLADE: Angiosperms
CLADE: Monocots
ORDER: Asparagales
FAMILY: Alliaceae
SUBFAMILY: Allioideae
GENUS: Allium
SPECIES: A. sativum

5.  Garlic (Allium sativum) is one of the important bulb
crops grown and used as a spice or condiment
throughout India.
 The compound bulb of garlic consists of several
small bulblets or cloves.
 It is rich in proteins, phosphorous, potassium,
calcium, magnesium and carbohydrates.
 Contains allicin and principal ingredient is diallyl
disulpide
 Garlic helps indigestion and cholesterol in human
blood.
 Garlic is generally cultivated in M.P, Rajasthan,
Gujrat, Orissa, Punjab and Haryana.
 In India, it is grown in an area of 1.71 lakh hectares
with a production of 9.23 lakh tons and 5.38 tons
per hectare productivity. In Himachal Pradesh,
Garlic is number one bulbous crop grown in an area
of 3,799 hectares with total production of 61,049
MT (Anonymous, 2014).
INTRODUCTION AND IMPORTANCE

6. SOIL
 According to Rao and Purewal (1957) and Joshi (1961),
garlic requires medium black to well drained loamy soils
rich in humus, with fairly good content of potash.
 The optimum soil pH for garlic is between 6 and 7.
 The crop raised on sandy or loose soil does not keep for
long and the bulbs too are lighter in weight.
 In heavy soils, the bulbs produced are deformed, and
during harvesting many bulbs are broken so they do not
keep well in storage.
 Highly alkaline and saline soils are not suitable for garlic
cultivation.

7. CLIMATIC REQUIREMENT
 Garlic is a frost-hardy plant, requires cool and moist climate
during growth period and warm dry weather during maturity.
 There are two types of varieties = long days and short days
varieties.
 In India short day types are grown.
 Cool growing period gives more yield than warm.
 Garlic should be planted early to promote vegetative growth
under short day conditions and cool temperature.
 It survives well in areas with 600-1200 mm annual rainfall
with temperatures ranging between 5-25ºC to 25-40ºC and
critical day length for bulbing is 12 hours..

8.  Garlic is propagated through cloves.
 The size of clove can greatly influence the
growth and yield of garlic (Sultana et al.,
1997).
 The expression of life cycle, the ontogeny
of the phenotype and the strategy of
bulbing depend on the size of cloves,
which affect the final yield of garlic (Baten
et al., 1989).
 The large mother bulb produced bulbs
having average diameter and weight of
2.21cm and 9.87g, respectively compared
to 2.07cm and 8.43g produced by the small
mother bulbs (Couto, 1958).
PROPAGATION

9.  Seed clove size had significant influence on all the growth and yield
parameters. Higher yield was recorded from large sized clove
(16.87t/ha) than that of medium (15.69t/ha) and small (13.10 t/ha)
ones (Alam et al., 2010).
 Main effect of seed clove size on growth and yield of
garlic bulb under dry land condition at harvest.
Treatmen
ts
Fresh wt.
of bulb
(g)
Length of
bulb
(cm)
Diameter
of bulb
(cm)
No. of
cloves/bul
b
Yield/plot
(kg)
Yield
(t/ha)
T1 34.40 4.34 4.20 31.00 2.53 16.87
T2 32.00 3.95 3.95 26.25 2.35 15.69
T3 27.55 3.65 3.55 22.60 1.97 13.10

10. PLANTING
 Seed rate of 500-700kg/ha.
 Place cloves 4 inches apart and 2 inches
deep, in their upright position (the wide
root side facing down and pointed end
facing up).
 Four methods can be used for planting
i.e. dibbling, furrow, broad casting and
seed drill.
 SPACING: For bigger cloves: 15x10cm.
 The lowest yield bio mass (10.6) was
recorded in treatment one planted with 0
cm plant spacing. While the highest
yield bio mass(32.66) was recorded in
treatment three planted with 15 cm plant
spacing(Hussen et al., 2014).

11. • Madhya Pradesh,
Karnataka and Andhra
Pradesh.
AUGUST-
NOVEMBER
• North India
SEPTEMBER-
NOVEMBER
• Hilly regions
MARCH-
APRIL
• Gujrat
• West-Bengal, Orissa
OCTOBER-
NOVEMBER

12. RECOMMENDED VARIETIES
YAMUNA SAFED-2
AGRIFOUND
WHITE
YAMUNA SAFED- 1
TSS 41% dry matter 42.78%
and good storer. The yield is 130
q/ha.
The variety is tolerant to insect pests and
diseases like purple blotch, stemphylium
blight and onion thrips. TSS 38%, dry
matter 39.5% and good storer. Yield 150-
175 q/ha.
TSS 38-40%, dry matter 40-41%.
Average yield 150-200 q/ha. The variety
is recommended for Northern India.

13. YAMUNA SAFED-3
AGRIFOUND PARVATI
YAMUNA
SAFED-4
15-16 number of cloves per bulb TSS
38.42%, dry matter 39-43%, medium storer.
Average yield 175-200 q/ha. The variety is
suitable for export.
Yield 200-250 q/ha. Storage quality is
better than Yamuna Safed-3. Suitable for
exports.
The variety is long day type and as such is
suitable for cultivation in mid and high hills
of Northern states. Average yield 175-225
q/ha, medium storer.
NEW RELEASED VARIETIES: Yamuna Safed 5, VL Lahsun -2, VL
Garlic- 1
VARIETIES FOR H.P.: Agrifound White and Agrifound Parvati, Solan
Selection, Large Segmented, Selection -1

14. MANURE AND FERTILIZERS
 Garlic responds very well to organic manures. For normal soil
10-50 tons of FYM, 60-125kg N, 35-65kg P and 0-100kg K/ha
for different parts of country( Thumburaj and Singh).
 Micronutrients also increase its yield potential.
 Increasing nitrogen level up to 100kg ha-1 resulted in longer
leaves, greater number of leaves per plant, maximum single
bulb weight, and bulb yield per plant (7.08kg) and Bulb yield
ha-1 (6746.03kg) . Further more, increase in nitrogen levels had
no appreciable effect on the performance of garlic (Kakar et
al., 2002).

15.  Plants under zinc sulphate @ 0.25% recorded maximum
plant height (61.72cm), number of roots (102.56), length
of cloves (3.05 cm) and neck thickness (1.08 cm). Borax
@ 0.2% was found most effective for yield improvement
of garlic followed by zinc sulphate @ 0.25% (Chanchan
et al., 2013).
 Application of Zn at 5 kg/ha along with blanket dose of
N, P, K, and S fertilizers would be profitable for garlic
cultivation (Nasreen et al., 2009).
 Abbas et al. (1994) studied the effect of N (0, 50, 100 and
150 kg/ha) and K (0, 30, 60 and 90 kg/ha) on local garlic
cultivar. Highest yield and profits of 97.32 and 96.26
q/ha were observed with the application of 100 N/kg and
90 kg K2O/ha.

16. IRRIGATION
 Water requirement for garlic 425 mm.
 In general, garlic needs irrigation at 8 days intervals during
vegetative growth and 10-15 days during maturation.
 As the crop matures, stop irrigation to allow field to dry out first.
 Continued irrigation as the crop matures causes the roots and
bulb scales to rot. This discolour the bulbs exposes outer cloves
and decreases the market value of bulbs.
 Irrigation at very long spell of drought results in splitting of
bulbs.
 Excessive irrigation results in sprouting.
 Using of drip irrigation causes both decreasing weeds and
increasing yield in garlic cultivars (Mohammad Ghanbari, 2013).

17.  Maximum yield of 4,110.2 kg/ha was recorded from the 4 day
irrigation interval while,1,835.4 kg/ha was recorded from the 8
– day irrigation interval (Aminu K. Doro, 2012).
 Bulb yield, bulb weight, number of cloves/bulb and clove weight
as affected by irrigation interval for the two years combined.
Treatment
Irrigation
Interval(days)
Bulb
Yield (kg ha)
Bulb Weight (g) No. of
Cloves(No.)
Clove Weight
(g)
2 2004.6 8.6 10.9 0.7
4 4110.2 16.7 16.1 1.0
6 2085.5 11.6 14.4 0.9
8 1835.4 8.9 9.8 0.6

18. INTERCULTURE
 First weeding is done one month after planting and
second one month after first weeding.
 Hoeing the crop just before the formation of bulbs
(about two and a half months after sowing) helps
in setting of bigger sized well filled bulbs.
 Pendimethaline @ 3.5 litres/ha + 1 hand weeding
gives good control.
 The maximum bulb yield was found in weed free
treatment, followed by Pendimethaline, whereas,
minimum bulb yield was recorded in control.
Therefore, manual weeding throughout season or
the use of Pendimethaline @ 2.5 L/ ha is
recommended for getting higher garlic yield
(Rahman et al., 2012).

20. HARVESTING AND YIELD
 Garlic becomes ready for
harvesting when its tops turn
yellowish or brownish and
show signs of drying up and
bend over.
 It takes about 4-5 months after
planting to reach maturity.
 The yields of bulbs vary from
100 to 200 q/ha depending
upon variety and regions.

21.  CURING: is an additional process of drying to remove the
excess moisture for about a week in field and to allow the bulbs
to become compact and go into dormant stage.
 SORTING and GRADING: The thick- necked, splitted, injured
and diseased bulbs with hollow cloves are sorted out. Size
grading is done after sorting.
 PACKAGING: In India, garlic bulbs are packed in open mesh
jute bags for domestic use. Nylon-netted bags used for packing
and further storage cause minimum losses in storage.
 STORAGE: Domestically garlic is stored above 18ºC and
in dry condition to keep it dormant. Thoroughly cured
garlic bulbs keep fairly well in ordinary ventilated room.
Bulbs are stored for 6-7 months at relatively humidity
higher than 70% at any temperature will develop moulds
and start root growth. Cold storage of garlic is possible at
0-2.2°C temperature and 60-70% relative humidity.

22. PHYSIOLOGICAL DISORDERS
 Sprouting is seen when there are
winter rains or excessive soil moisture
and nitrogen supply.
 Early-planting also causes sprouting.
 Splitting is due to delayed harvesting
or irrigation after long spell of drought.
 It was observed that rubberification
was totally controlled by application of
micronutrients i.e. zinc sulphate and
ammonium molybdate. It was also
controlled by neem cake insecticides
and growth regulator like GA.

24.  KINGDOM: Plantae
 CLADE: Angiosperms
 CLADE: Monocots
 ORDER: Asparagales
 FAMILY: Alliaceae
 SUBFAMILY: Allioideae
 GENUS: Allium
 SPECIES: A. cepa

25.  Onion is one of the most important commercial vegetable crops in
India.
 Grown in rabi and kharif season.
 Maharastra, Gujarat, Uttra Pradesh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh are
the major onion growing states.
 The total annual area is estimated to be about 1203.57 thousand
hectare and production is about 19401.63 metric tonnes. In
Himachal Pradesh area is about 2.34 thousand hectare and 43.71
MT production (NHB, 2014).
 Onion is valued for its bulbs having characteristic odour, flavour
and pungency, which is due to the presence of a volatile oil – allyl-
propyl-disulphide.
 India is the second largest producer of onion in the world.
INTRODUCTION AND
IMPORTANCE

26. Onion is used for treating digestion problems including
loss of appetite, upset stomach, and for
treating heart and blood vessel problems including chest
pain (angina) and high blood pressure; and for preventing
atherosclerosis.
 It is also used for treating sore mouth and throat,
bronchitis, whooping
cough, bronchitis, asthma, dehydration, intestinal gas,
parasitic worms, and diabetes.
 Some people use it as a diuretic to increase urine output.

28. VARIETIES
 The onion varieties have been classified on the basis of size
and skin colour. According to classification the onion can be
divided in to two groups:
 Common onion
 Multiplier onion

29. VARIETY SOURCE CHARACTERS
Pusa Red,Pusa Ratnar and
Pusa Madhavi
IARI Yield 25-40 tonnes/ha, good
storage quality.
Punjab Selection, Punjab Red
Round, Punjab Nayora
PAU, Ludhiana Yield 20-30 tonnes/ha.
N 53, N 2-4-1 Niphad Yield 15-20tonnes/ha, kharif
season (BOTH)
Baswant 780 MPKV Yield 20-25 tonnes/ha, kharif
Arka Niketan, Arka Kalyan
(KHARIF) and Arka Bindu
IIHR Yield 25-33 tonnes/ha
Agrifound Light Red,
Agrifound Dark Red
(KHARIF) and Agrifound
Rose
NHRDF YIELD 20-30 tonnes/ha
Udaipur 101,103 UDAIPUR Univ. Yield 20-30 tonnes/ha
Hissar II HAU, Hissar Yield 20 tonnes/ha
Kalyanpur Red Round CSAUA&T, Kanpur 20 tonnes/ha
RED COLOURED
VARIETIES

30. WHITE COLOURED
VARIETIES
Pusa White Flat, Pusa White
Round
IARI Yield 30-35 tonnes/ha, TSS
11-13%
Punjab 48, Punjab White PAU, Ludhiana Yield 30 tonnes/ha suitable
for dehydration purpose
Udaipur 102 Udaipur Univ. Yield 25-30 tonnes/ha, TSS
12%, suitable for
dehydration
N 257-9-1 Niphad Yield 25-30 tonnes/ha,
suitable for dehaydration.
YELLOW COLOURED
ONION
Early Grano, Brown Spanish
(LD)
IARI Yields 30-60 tonnes/ha
Arka Pitamber IIHR Good keeping quality and
free from splits and bolters
Phule Swarna MPKV TSS 11.5%, yields 24
tonnes/ha

31. MULTIPLIER ONION
Co 1,2,3,4 TNAU, Coimbatore Yield 12-18 tonnes/ha
MDU 1 Madurai Campus of TNAU 15 tonnes/ha
Agrifound Red Dindigal, NHRDF 18-20 tonnes/ha
VARIETIES SUITABLE FOR H.P.
Patna Red, N 53(Kharif),
Agrifound Dark Red, Brown
Spanish, Palam Lohit, Nasik
Red

32.  Multiplier onion or potato onion
(Allium cepa var. aggregatum) –
producing small underground bulbs borne
in clusters and generally propagated
through small bulbs. Mainly used for
seasoning curries.
 Shallot (Allium cepa var. ascalonicum) –
Produces bulbs in clusters on surface of
soil. This perennial onion rarely produces
seeds and is propagated through bulbs.
 Tree onion or Egyptian onion (Allium
cepa var. viviparaum / proliferum) –
This viviparous plant produces cluster
between 2-16 bulbletes at the top of the
stem and resistant to all known pests and
diseases of onion.

33.  Onion prefers a well drained, loose and friable soil rich in
humus.
 It is sensitive to high acidity and alkalinity and the ideal pH is
5.8 to 6.5.
 When pH drops below 5.5, magnesium and molybdenum
availability drops and above 6.5, zinc, manganese and iron
become deficient.
 Sandy soil needs more and frequent irrigation and favour
early maturity.
 In heavy soils, the bulbs produced may be deformed. Onion
crop can be grown successfully on heavy soil with application
of organic manure prior to planting.
SOIL

36. CLIMATE
 The best performance can be obtained in a mild weather without the
extremes of cold and heat and excessive rainfall (not more than 75-100cm)
with 70% relative humidity.
 Plants at early stage can withstand the freezing temperature.
 Optimum temperature for seed germination should be 20-25ºC.
 Low temperature (13ºC-21ºC) + short photoperiods = vegetative growth.
 Relatively high temperature(20ºC-25ºC) + long photoperiods = bulb
development.
 25-30ºC for bulb maturation.
 Low temperature (<15ºC) for long period in bulb crop favours bolting
which is not desirable.
 Long day varieties do not bulb under shot days where as short day
varieties if planted under long days will develop early bulbs.
 There were no blubing at photoperiods below 11h, but bulbing
thereafter increased progressively with increase in day length(
Okporie et al., 2008).

37. METHODS OF PLANTING
The following three methods of planting
are followed depending on soil,
topography, climatic conditions and
economic aspects:
1. Raising seedlings and transplanting
2. Planting bulbs directly in the field.
3. Broadcasting or drilling of seeds directly
in the field.

38. PLANTING TIME (INDIA)
SEASON TIME OF
SOWING
TIME OF
TRANSPLANTING
HARVESTING
TME
NORTH INDIA
Rainy (kharif) May-June July-August November-December
Winter (rabi) October-November December-January May-June
MAHARASHTRA AND PARTS OF GUJRAT
Kharif May-June July-August October-December
Late kharif August-September September-October January-March
Rabi November-
December
December-January April-June
TAMILNADU, KARNATAKA AND ANDHRA PRADESH
Early rainy(kharif) April-May May-June August
Rainy (kharif) May-June July-August October-November
Winter (rabi) September-October November-December March-April

39. SEED RATE= 8-10kg/ha
SET
S
These are small dry onion bulbs produced in the previous year.
These mature 3-4 weeks earlier.
Commercially used to produce early green onions but also used
for dry bulb production
SPACING
15cm between rows and 5-8cm between plant to plant.
Transplanting on ridges is ideal for kharif onion crop.

40. The combination of 20cm × 10cm spacing with 2cm depth of
planting gave significant higher yield (12.82 t/ha).
Effects of spacing on the growth, yield and yield components of
onion
Treatments Bulb diameter
(cm)
Fresh weight of
bulb (g)
Dry matter
content of bulb
(%)
Bulb yield
kg/plot
SPACING
S1
(20cmx20cm)
4.25a 37.86a 10.90a 1.29b
S2
(20cmx15cm)
3.86b 32.17b 9.56b 1.34b
S3
(20cmx10cm)
3.47c 24.14c 9.09c 1.45a
Sikder et al.,2010

41. Manures and fertilizers
 Onion is a heavy feeder of nitrogen and potash and a crop
yielding 20-30 t/ha requires 60-150kg N, 35-150kg P2O5
and 25-125kg K2O, Cu and B @13.4kg and 1.8kg/ha are
beneficial in increasing the yield.
 The K requirement of onion plants increases with yield as
its functions are linked to photosynthesis (Greenwood &
Stone., 1998).
 Excess application of N causes excessive vegetative
growth, delayed maturity, increase susceptibility to
diseases, reduce dry matter contents and storability and
ultimately reduce yield and quality bulbs (Brewster, 1994;
Sørensen and Grevsen, 2001).

43. IRRIGATION
 Onion is mainly grown as a irrigated crop
in India.
 Requirement of water varies with stages of
crop.
 One irrigation is necessary immediately
after transplanting.
 In kharif season= 8-10 irrigations.
 In late kharif crop-12-15 irrigations.
 In rabi crop- 15-20 irrigations are given.
 At bulb formation stage irrigation is
necessary.
 In rabi season irrigation is stopped when
top mature and start falling.
 In kharif season it should be stopped 10
days before harvesting.

44.  3 and 6 days irrigation interval are most suitable for onion
production in the study area. Similarly, plant density of 500,000
plant/ha gives greater yield advantage(Muhammad et al., 2011).
 Onion Bulb Yield (t/ha) as Affected by Irrigation Interval x Plant
Density Interaction in the Two Years Combined.
Treatments Plant density (plants/ha)
Irrigation 160,000 200,000 250,000 350,000 500,000
3 10.02 10.31 11.91 11.28 13.50
6 10.35 10.42 12.97 12.91 13.66
9 9.71 9.87 11.34 11.33 12.05
12 8.01 8.11 9.411 9.33 10.12

45. WEEDING AND INTERCULTURE
 The critical period of crop-weed competition is between 4-8
weeks.
 Application of Alachlor ( Lasso) @ 2litres/ha or Pandimethalin
(Stomp) @ 3 litres/ha in 750 litres of water before transplanting is
beneficial for controlling weeds.
 3 weeding are sufficient to harvest economic crop if performed 30,
50 and 75 days after transplanting.
 Three hand hoeings proved to be the best weed control practice.
The herbicide pendimethaline performed equally good with the 3
hoeings (Jilani et al., 2007).
 The performance of pendimethalin was the best among all the
herbicidal treatments followed by s-metolachlor. Therefore,
pendimethalin is recommended @ 1.32 kg a.i ha-1 for significantly
reducing the weeds population and enhancing the bulb yield in
onion(Marwat et al., 2005).

46. HARVESTING AND YIELD
 Harvest rabi onion one week after 50-
70% neck fall. In kharif season, since
tops do not fall, soon after the colour of
leaves changes to slightly yellow and
tops starts drying, the bulbs are
harvested.
 Harvesting at this stage results in higher
yield, longer storage life of bulbs and
less neck rot.
 Traditional method of harvesting onions
in New Zealand, where onions are lifted
at 60–80% top‐down, the bulbs are
field‐cured, and the foliage is removed
after curing, is the simplest method and
best compromise to ensure postharvest
onion quality and successful
storage(Wright et al., 2001).

47.  To hasten the maturity process,
the tops can be rolled down with
light weight roller when about
10% of the tops have fallen
naturally.
 Late harvesting results in thick
necked bulb, sunken and also
poor storage life.
 The average yield of onion bulb
is about 300- 400 quintals in
rabi season and 200-250
quintals in kharif season.

48. DRYING AND CURING: Drying= removal of excess moisture, CURING=
additional process aiding the development of skin colour and to remove field heat
before bulbs are stored.
In north India: for kharif season curing is required for 2-3 weeks with tops and for
rabi, bulbs are cured in field for 3-5 days in windrow method, tops are cut, leaving 2-
2.5cm above the bulb and then bulbs are again cured in shade for 7-10 days to
remove the field heat.
GRADING: Thick necked, bolted, doubles, injured and
decayed bulbs are picked out.
STORAGE:At all temperatures there was a gradual loss in weight,
the loss at 32.3-35ºC was approximately twice than that at 0ºC. The
onion bulbs can be stored at temperature of 23.9-29.4ºC or higher
for 5-6 months without sprouting and without excessive loss of
weight. In general the onion that has been stored at 0ºC sprouted
much sooner after removal from storage than those stored at 33.2-
35ºC. A temperature of 0ºC and arelative humidity of 65-70% has
been recommended for successful storage.

49. 1) Bolting: It refers to the emergence of
seed stalk prior to time of their
formation and adversely affects the
formation and development of bulbs.
 The restricted and poor vegetative
growth may also leads to bolting.
 It can be rectified by adjusting the
time of transplanting in such a way
that the crop may exposed to
moderate temperature at bulbing.
PHYSIOLOGICAL DISODER
2) Splitting/Doubling:
Adverse environment condition and
imbalanced nutrient supply causes
splitting and doubling of bulbs.