Enhancing Onion Yield, Quality, Storability and Profitability by Using FYM, Copper and Bio-fertilizer

This investigation explored the effect of copper application under organic and bio-fertilization on onion growth, yield and yield components, chemical contents and bulb storability as well as economic efficiency during 2018/2019 and 2019/2020. In this research, the design of the experiments was split-split design in complete randomized blocks in four replications. The factors were: A. farmyard manure (0.0, 12 and 24 t ha-1) where arranged in the main plots, B. copper (0.0 and foliar spray of copper sulphate at rate of 0.1% twice, about 600 L ha-1) where randomly allocated in sub plots, and C. biofertilizer (0.0 and inoculation with Azotobacter chroococcum inoculant) where randomly applied in sub- sub plots. The results indicated that increasing FYM levels, foliar spraying of Cu and bio-fertilization improved all studied onion quality and quantity, except copper concentration in onion leaves at 75 days age which affected only by copper application. From the results of this research, it could be recommended to fertilize onion plants with 12 t ha-1 of FYM instead of 24 t ha-1 with Cu spraying and biofertilizer inoculation to maximize the quality, quantity, storability and net return of onion grown in alluvial soil at Middle Egypt conditions.