Performance of onion cultivars as a function of spacing between plants

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of onion cultivars as a function of the spacing between plants. The experimental design was a complete randomized block in a 3 x 4 factorial scheme, with four replicates. The treatments were composed of the combination between three onion cultivars (Vale Ouro IPA 11, Serena and Rio das Antas) and four plant spacings (3, 6, 8 and 10 cm). The evaluated characteristics were total, marketable and unmarketable yield of bulbs, percentages of bulbs in classes 1, 2, 3 and 4, bulb mean weight, bulb dry weight. In onion cultivation, the cultivars Rio das Antas and Serena are the most indicated, with the highest marketable yields at 6 and 3 cm spacings between plants, respectively. The cultivar Vale Ouro IPA 11 presented higher marketable yield for the spacing of 5 cm between plants.