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
Richard Greenland, Leonard Besemann, and Heidi Eslinger
Table 25. Early vigor, maturity, and quality of onions.
Table 26. Yield and total onions.
Onions grow well in North Dakota. Growers are producing mostly yellow sweet Spanish onions and some storage onions.
| Soil: | Maddock sandy loam, Embden sandy loam and Hecla sandy loam; pH=7.0; 2.7% organic matter; soil-P and soil-K were very high; soil-S was very low. |
| Previous crops: | 1998 - pepper; 1997 - carrot; 1996 - potato. |
| Seedbed preparation: | Disked on 27 October 1998. Field cultivated on April 12 to incorporate fertilizer and smooth the seedbed. |
| Planting: | Direct seeded onions (200,000 seeds/acre) on April 14 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 Fusilade + nonionic surfactant (12 oz/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 7, broadcast 15 lbs N/acre and 75 lbs P2O5/acre as 10-50-0, 18 lbs N/acre and 20 lbs S/acre as 21-0-0-24, and 99 lbs K20/acre as 0-0-60. Sprayed 40 and 70 lbs N/acre as 28-0-0 on April 12 and June 7, respectively. |
| Irrigation: | Overhead sprinkler irrigation as needed. |
| Pest control: | Weeds were controlled with: Prowl (1.5 pt/acre on May 19); Buctril + Goal (1.5 + 0.6 pt/acre on June 1 and June 25); Fusilade + nonionic surfactant (16 oz/acre + 1 pt/25 gal on June 16); and hand weeding. We sprayed with Kocide (2 lbs/acre on July 13 and July 23), Manzate (3 lb/acre on July 30), and Rovral (1.5 pt/acre on Aug 15) 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 latter part of September when they were bagged and moved to a shed. The onions were graded Nov 3 and Nov 5. |
Teton and Santos were again the top yielding onion hybrids. Mars (a red hybrid) did much better this year than in 1998. Teton, Uni-Globe 108, Tenshin, and Frontier had the highest yields of medium onions. Frontier was the earliest, followed by Tenshin. Teton had the highest percentage of single center onions.
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Table 25. Early vigor, maturity, and quality of onions in the Oakes Irrigation Research Site 1999 onion performance trial.
| Hybrid | Seed source† | Early vigor | Days to half-down‡ | Single centers | Uniformity | Overall score |
| 1 to 10 | % | 1 to 5 | 1 to 10 | |||
| Frontier | AT | 8.8 a¶ | 125 a | 30 b-e | 3.3 bc | 7.0 |
| Mars | NH(PS) | 7.8 bc | 130 bc | 11 e | 3.0 cd | 7.4 |
| Quantum | PS | 7.3 c | 130 bc | 50 ab | 2.9 d | 6.9 |
| Santos | NH(VL) | 7.5 bc | 148 e | 15 de | 3.3 bc | 7.5 |
| Tenshin | NH(SC) | 7.5 bc | 128 b | 40 a-d | 3.7 a | 7.5 |
| Teton | NH(PS) | 7.3 c | 135 d | 65 a | 3.5 ab | 7.5 |
| Uni-Globe 100 | PS | 7.3 c | 130 bc | 20 cde | 3.3 bc | 7.4 |
| Uni-Globe 108 | PS | 8.3 ab | 132 cd | 40 bc | 3.1 cd | 7.1 |
| C. V. (%) | 8 | 2 | 48 | 8 | 6 | |
| Probability | 0.025 | 0.0001 | 0.003 | 0.01 | 0.30 | |
†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.
¶Values in the same column followed by the same letter are not significantly different at the 0.05 level. If no letters in column, then there are no significant differences between values in that column.
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Table 26. Yield and total onions in the Oakes Irrigation Research Site 1999 onion performance trial.
| Hybrid | Seed source† | Onion yield (by bulb size) | Total bulbs | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| > 3" | 2¼ to 3" | <2¼" | Total | |||
| cwt/acre | 1000s/A | |||||
| Frontier | AT | 16 c‡ | 282 ab | 142 a | 462 b | 217 a |
| Mars | NH(PS) | 345 a | 197 c | 53 c | 623 a | 164 cd |
| Quantum | PS | 153 b | 242 bc | 55 c | 496 b | 155 d |
| Santos | NH(VL) | 312 a | 270 ab | 40 c | 686 a | 178 bcd |
| Tenshin | NH(SC) | 60 c | 299 ab | 72 bc | 450 b | 163 cd |
| Teton | NH(PS) | 294 a | 317 a | 52 c | 695 a | 185 bc |
| Uni-Globe 100 | PS | 74 bc | 255 abc | 94 b | 444 b | 168 bcd |
| Uni-Globe 108 | PS | 64 c | 308 ab | 87 b | 502 b | 189 b |
| C. V. (%) | 32 | 18 | 28 | 10 | 9 | |
| Probability | 0.0001 | 0.047 | 0.0001 | 0.0001 | 0.0006 | |
†See appendix A for seed source codes.
‡Values in the same column followed by the same letter are not significantly different at the 0.05 level.
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Go to Oakes Irrigation Research Site Variety Performance Trials
Go to Oakes Irrigation Research Site 1999 annual report