Dry matter percentage of leaf blades and scales during the growth of onion (allium cepa l.)

Abstract

Dry matter percentage (DM%) was determined for the scales and leaf blades of individual onions of the white variety, ‘Southport White Globe’ and the brown variety ‘Spartan Sleeper’ during the season 1981–82. No overall seasonal trend was detected in the DM% of whole bulbs of either variety, suggesting that the DM% of a young bulb is an accurate indication of the DM% of the bulb at maturity. Each bulb had a wide range of scale to scale variation in DM% (e.g., 11.0–15.8% within 1 onion), with a tendency to higher values in the outermost and innermost scales. Blade to blade variation occurred, but leaf blades had a lower DM% than the corresponding scales. There was a positive correlation between the DM% of the third scale inwards and the DM% of the whole bulb in both varieties (R = 0.88** for ‘Southport White Globe’, and R = 0.90** for ‘Spartan Sleeper’), throughout the season. © 1984 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.