Nitrogen Effects on Onion Yield Under Drip and Furrow Irrigation

Abstract

Onion (Allium cepa L.) is a high cash value crop with a very shallow root system that is frequently irrigated and fertilized with high N rates to maximize yield. Converting from furrow-irrigated to drip-irrigated onion production may reduce N fertilizer needs, water inputs, and NO 3 -N leaching potential. Onion growth and N uptake, fresh yield, and residual soil NO 3 -N were determined under drip and furrow irrigation on a clay loam soil with N fertilizer rates from 0 to 224 kg N ha -1 . Onions were sampled bi-weekly from 25 May to 30 August in 2005 and 2006 from each treatment. In 2005, 72% less water was applied with the drip system compared with furrow system, and 57% less in 2006. Onion yields were signifi cantly greater with the drip system. Total marketable fresh onion yield increased with increasing N rate in 2005 only. Th e drip system had more colossal and jumbo sized onions and less medium sized onions than the furrow system. Biomass production and N accumulation accelerated in mid-June each year with an average total N accumulation (leaves + bulbs) of 121 kg N ha -1 at fi nal harvest. Irrigation water use effi ciency (IWUE) and N use effi ciency (NUE) were higher with the drip system than with the furrow system. Residual soil NO 3 -N levels were greater in the drip-irrigated treatments aft er onion harvest in 2005 than in the furrow-irrigated treatments, but soil NO 3 -N levels were similar aft er harvest in 2006. Adjusted gross economic returns (less the cost of N, water, and drip system) were greater with drip irrigation than with furrow irrigation. Th is study demonstrates that fresh onion yields, potential economic returns, IWUE, and NUE can be improved in Colorado by using drip irrigation for onion production rather than furrow irrigation.

Interactions among genotype, environment and agronomic practices on production and quality of storage onion (Allium cepa L.) - A review

“…The excess of applied fertilizer or nutrient content in the soil does not produce benefits to plants or may even depress the uptake of nutrients as well as crop growth and yield (Lee, Lee 2014), either concerning nitrogen (Boyhan et al 2007;Halvorson et al 2008) or phosphorus and potassium (Laughlin 1989;Amin et al 2007;Boyhan et al 2007;Lee et al 2011). According to Lee et al (2011) no increase of bulb yield is achieved over the range of 7 to 42 mg/kg NO 3 -N content in the soil.…”

Model and Growth Stage Based Variability of the Irrigation Demand of Onion Crops with Predicted Climate Change

“…In most production regions onions have been traditionally irrigated with furrow irrigation, but susceptibility to wind drift, inconsistency and low efficiency are reported [75][76][77]. Drip irrigation is assumed to be more advantageous for onion production due to higher water distribution uniformity, reduced evaporation losses and deep percolation, but higher levels of management.…”

Management of nitrogen fertilizer, irrigation and plant density in onion production using response surface methodology as optimization approach

“…Improvement of NUE was associated with lower N utilization and higher onion yield. Studying N fertilizer effects on onion by illustrated that increasing N fertilizer led to reduce the NUE (Halvorson et al, 2008). NUE was reduced along with increasing N fertilizer at all plant densities (Figure 4).…”

“…Based on the effects of N rate × irrigation interactions on N losses, it can be concluded that an increase in irrigation amount at low levels of N rates led to no influence in N losses whereas, more N losses was found at high levels of N rates in the same conditions (Figure 3). Halvorson et al (2008) reported that soil nitrate generally increased with increasing N rate leading to the increase of nitrate leaching potential. They also described that drip system reduced soil nitrate leaching compared with furrow system.…”