Genetically identification of Egyptian onion genotypes for seed yield under heat stress

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Horticulture Department, Faculty of Agriculture, South Valley University, 83523 Qena, Egypt.

Abstract

Constraints are reported for the low productivity and quality of onion seed production in Upper Egypt. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted to study the influence of planting date and genotypes on yield and quality of onion seed production under Upper Egypt conditions where high average day /night-time of temperatures (27.4 ̊C and 11.2 ̊C) for two seasons. The results revealed significant interactions between planting date and genotypes on seed yield/plant in both seasons and the number of umbel/plant in the 2nd season. The highest seed yield (442.25 kg/fed-1) was recorded from Giza 20 planted in Early November sowing. Planted onion bulb set early- November increased seed yield (by 9.6% -17.9 % kg/fed) than grown early December. As a result, Giza 20 cultivar in early November in the current study area and other similar agroecology areas could be suggested to produce a better seed yield of onion. A principal component analysis was performed to interpret the distance between the genotypes. The average inter-cluster distance was found maximum (154.15) between G1 (Sabeeni) and G4 (Giza 20). The differences between the behavior of the seven studied traits in Giza 6 and Giza Red (Group I) are very weak, while for Sabeeni (Group III) and Shandaweel 1 (Group IV), the extent of the differences between the average traits reaches 26.5 % and 29.2% in 1st and 2nd planting dates under the conditions of Upper Egypt, thus considered 2 groups. The inter-seasonal and intra- seasonal fluctuation in both climatic parameters greatly affected the studied onion traits.

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