Oakes Irrigation Research
Site
Carrington Research Extension Center * North Dakota State University
P.O. Box 531, Oakes, ND 58474-0531, Voice: (701) 742-2189, FAX: (701)
742-2700, email: rgreenla@ndsuext.nodak.edu
ONION HYBRID
PERFORMANCE TRIAL, 1998
Richard Greenland, Leonard Besemann, and Heidi Kerlin
Onions grow well in North Dakota. Growers are producing mostly yellow sweet Spanish onions and some storage onions.
Table 35. Yield and total number of onions
Go to Oakes Irrigation Research Site Variety Performance Trials
MATERIALS AND METHODS
| Soil: | Maddock sandy loam and Egeland loam; pH=7.3; 2.5% organic matter; soil-P and soil-K were very high; soil-S was very low. |
| Previous crops: | 1997 - carrot; 1996 - sweet corn; 1995 - cabbage and broccoli. |
| Seedbed preparation: |
Disked on 31 October 1997. Multiweeded (field cultivated) on April 15 to incorporate fertilizer and smooth the seedbed. Multiweeded shallow on May 13 to break the crust. |
| Planting: | Direct seeded onions (200,000 seeds/acre) on April 15 with a Stanhay vegetable planter modified to drill a barley cover crop (1 bu/acre, 6-inch rows) between and parallel to the onion rows. Planted onions in paired rows (3 inches apart), with the paired rows on 16-inch centers. Sprayed Poast + Dash (1.5 pt/acre + 1 qt/50 gal) on May 19 to kill the barley cover crop. |
| Plots: | Plots were 3 ft (two paired rows plus wheel track) wide by 17 ft long. The study had 4 reps. |
| Fertilizer: | On April 13, broadcast 14 lbs N/acre and 70 lbs P2O5/acre as 10-50-0, 16 lbs N/acre and 19 lbs S/acre as 21-0-0-24, and 94 lbs K20/acre as 0-0-60. Applied 69 lbs N/acre as urea on May 29. Sprayed 50 lbs N/acre as 28-0-0 on June 24. Fertigated 40 lbs N/acre as 28-0-0 on July 9. |
| Irrigation: | Overhead sprinkler irrigation as needed. |
| Pest control: |
Weeds were controlled with: Prowl (1.5 pt/acre on May 11); Buctril + Goal (1.5 + 0.6 pt/acre on May 29 and June 25); Fusilade + nonionic surfactant (16 oz/acre + 1 pt/25 gal on June 25); and hand weeding. We sprayed with Ridomil (2.5 lbs/acre on June 26), Dithane (2.4 qt/acre on July 7), Manzate (3 lbs/acre on June 29, July 15, July 28 and Aug 13) and Rovral (1.5 pt/acre on July 23) to control diseases. No insect control needed. |
| Harvest: | Pulled onions approximately two weeks after half-down date. Onions were allowed to dry in the field until the first part of October when they were bagged and moved to a shed. The onions were graded Oct 28 to Oct 30. |
Santos, Teton, and Legend were the three top onion hybrids in yield and quality. Mars, the only red onion in the trial, did not have good quality this year. Frontier was early and had high yields of medium onions.
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Table 34. Early vigor, maturity, disease (mostly purple blotch) susceptibility, and quality of onions in the Oakes Irrigation Research Site 1998 onion performance trial.
| Hybrid | Seed source† | Early vigor | Days to half-down‡ | Disease rating§ | Single centers | Uniformity | Overall score |
| 1 to 10 | % | % | 1 to 5 | 1 to 10 | |||
| Cisco | BZ | 6.3 | 127 | 10.0 | 10 | 3.1 | 7.0 |
| Frontier | AT | 8.3 | 127 | 12.0 | 40 | 3.9 | 7.6 |
| Legend | BZ | 5.8 | 140 | 3.8 | 50 | 3.9 | 8.0 |
| Lorenzos | VL | 5.8 | 140 | 7.5 | 10 | 3.8 | 7.8 |
| Mars | PS | 6.8 | 133 | 8.0 | 50 | 3.0 | 6.9 |
| Santos | VL | 6.3 | 145 | 4.5 | 25 | 3.9 | 8.5 |
| Tenshin | SC | 7.0 | 132 | 14.5 | 75 | 3.8 | 7.8 |
| Teton | PS | 6.3 | 134 | 4.5 | 80 | 3.8 | 8.1 |
| VL-224 | VL | 8.0 | 131 | 16.3 | 50 | 3.8 | 7.6 |
| LSD (0.05) | 1.4 | 2 | 3.4 | 29 | 0.4 | 0.7 | |
| C.V. (%) | 14 | 1 | 26 | 46 | 8 | 6 | |
†See appendix A for seed source codes.
‡The "days to half-down" was the number of days from planting to when half the onion tops had fallen over. This is an indication of maturity.
§The percent of the onion leaf killed by disease (mostly purple blotch) on August 13 (one to three weeks before half-down date).
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Table 35. Yield and total onions in the Oakes Irrigation Research Site 1998 onion performance trial.
| Hybrid | Seed source† | Onion yield (by bulb size) | Total bulbs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| >4" | 3 to 4" | 2¼ to 3" | <2¼" | Total | |||
| --------------------------- cwt/acre ---------------------------- | 1000s/acre | ||||||
| Cisco | BZ | 5 | 133 | 250 | 58 | 490 | 157 |
| Frontier | AT | 0 | 96 | 388 | 40 | 533 | 166 |
| Legend | BZ | 3 | 363 | 214 | 21 | 629 | 134 |
| Lorenzos | VL | 0 | 193 | 282 | 54 | 538 | 157 |
| Mars | PS | 21 | 240 | 180 | 43 | 580 | 137 |
| Santos | VL | 42 | 515 | 151 | 18 | 762 | 143 |
| Tenshin | SC | 0 | 187 | 261 | 37 | 506 | 133 |
| Teton | PS | 3 | 380 | 259 | 33 | 696 | 151 |
| VL-224 | VL | 0 | 59 | 349 | 60 | 479 | 166 |
| LSD (0.05) | NS | 119 | 82 | 23 | 108 | 22 | |
| C.V. (%) | 244 | 34 | 22 | 38 | 13 | 10 | |
†See appendix A for seed source codes.
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Go to Oakes Irrigation Research Site Variety Performance Trials
Go to Oakes Irrigation Research Site 1998 annual report