Abstract

Onion (Allium cepa L.) is the most important vegetable crop grown all over the world. The deterioration of stored seed is a natural phenomenon and seeds tend to lose viability even under ideal storage conditions. Plant oils are reported to give maximum protection against seed mycoflora and eco-friendly in nature. Therefore, an experiment was conducted during 2019–20 at Department of Seed Science & Technology, Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University (CCSHAU), Hisar, India to elucidate the effect of plant oils and packaging materials on the longevity of onion seed (variety: Hisar Onion-4). The seeds were coated with eight different plant oils @ 10 mL/kg seed (castor, neem, aonla, til, linseed, karanj, akhrot, ajwain oils and untreated control) and kept in two containers viz., cloth bag and plastic zipping bag up to a storage period of nine months under ambient conditions in Seed Pathology Laboratory of Department of Seed Science & Technology, CCSHAU, Hisar. The samples were drawn at three-month interval for ascertaining the seed quality. The results showed that, seeds coated with neem oil (10 mL/kg seed) and stored in plastic zipping bag recorded better seed quality [germination (65.67%), root length (3.26 cm), shoot length (5.33 cm), mean seedling dry weight (6.60mg), vigour indices 1 and 2 (553.8 and 433.5), electrical conductivity (0.497 μS/cm/seed), mycoflora (0.643%), emergence index (6.27) and seedling establishment (53.50%)]. The present study suggests the use of appropriate packaging material and seed treatment could prolong the storage life and seed health of onion seeds.