Khurram Ziaf 1,*, Zain Ali 1, Anum Noor 2, Muhammad Awais Ghani 1, Waheed Anwar 4, Yasir Majeed 1 and Sarah Sajjad 3
1Institute of Horticultural Sciences, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad-38040, Pakistan 2Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 3Department of Botany, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan 4Department of Horticulture, Subcampus Depalpur, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad
*Corresponding author: khurramziaf@uaf.edu.pk
The onion (Allium cepa L.) is a biennial vegetable with regard to seed production. Seed yield is influenced by high temperature at the time of anthesis and seed setting in Punjab. Thiourea (TU) and PGPRS have been used in different crops to induce stress tolerance and to increase the yield. Two experiments were conducted to study the effect of different concentrations of thiourea (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20mM) and different PGPRS (Control, PsJN and FD17) on onion seed production. Thiourea and PGPRS were applied as foliar spray at post-anthesis stage in onion seed crop. Three replications were used under RCBD. In first experiment, maximum values of scape height was 30.367cm in 15mM TU, number of scapes (10.33), thousand seed weight (4.20mg), umbel diameter (5.29mm), weight of seed per umbel (0.34g), seed yield per plant (3.21g), plumule length (7.70cm), radicle length (4.17cm), germination percentage (85.66%), yield of seed per plot (369.85g/ft-2), dry weight (70.70mg) and fresh weight (431.64mg) of seedling in 5mM TU and seed germination duration as 16 days in 15mM of TU. Most of the results were higher in 5mM application of TU. While in second experiment, scape height (29.8cm), umbel diameter (5.29mm) and number of scapes per plant (10.3) were not significantly affected by different treatments yet FD17 showed the best results. Seed yield per plant (3.31g/plant) and yield of seed per plot (296.5g/ft2) were significantly (P<0.00) affected by FD17 treatment. Almost all the results of FD17 were superior to PsJN. In conclusion of this research, overall, the performance of thiourea (especially 5mM) was better as compared to others.