Influence of Irrigation Interval and Soil Texture on Onion Bulb Development (Allium cepa L.)

Resumen

Objective: To determine the influence of soil texture and irrigation interval on onion bulb development. Design/Methodology/Approach: The experimental design consisted of a 12 × 2 factorial arrangement, comprising 12 soil textural classes and two distinct irrigation frequencies. Thus, 24 treatments were evaluated, each with four replicates. The response variables included bulb weight, equatorial bulb diameter (ED), polar bulb diameter (PD), total soluble solids (TSS), bulb firmness, and bulb dry weight.  Results: The treatment combining sandy loam soil texture with daily irrigation exhibited the highest yields. Study Limitations/Implications: The experiment was conducted under greenhouse conditions, whereas onion is typically grown under open-field conditions. Moreover, no prior physical analysis was performed for each soil texture. Therefore, the results should be interpreted in light of these considerations. Findings/Conclusions: In most treatments, no significant differences were observed among the response variables analyzed.