Rojelee P. Agaton, Eufemia Lilia Anne S. del Rosario, Gemma M. Fernandez, Kenny Ryan D. Vedasto (February 2007)
Philippine Science High School Western Visayas Campus – Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PSHSWVC), Brgy. Bito-on, Jaro, Iloilo City 5000, Philippines
Abstract
Onion is a challenging crop to maintain optimum nitrogen fertility. Onions cannot utilize the organic nitrogen present in soil organic matter and crop residues until microbial activity releases available nitrogen. Hence, Filipino farmers find it hard to sufficiently fertilize their onion crops. Bio-N is a microbial-based fertilizer, and is composed pf microorganisms that can convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia. This provides nitrogen that can be utilized by plants. This study aims to test this fertilizer and compare its difference in the growth and yield of onions with the application of another organic fertilizer, Sagana 100. The study aims to determine the effect of the different treatments on the growth of green onions in terms of height of plants, number of sucker, number of leaves in the mother plant, length of roots, number of roots and the weight of the harvested onion plant. The results showed that the onions treated with Bio-N had the highest mean in all growth and yield parameters, except for the number of suckers. Sagana 100 + Bio-N and Sagana 100 were the treatments that yielded the lowest results for mean growth. Statistically, Bio-N and Pure Soil treatments showed to be significantly higher, with respect to the parameters, than the other two treatments. According to the statistical data, it can be concluded that there is a significant difference between the four treatments in all growth parameter, except for number of suckers (a=0.05, p=0.225).