Abstract
Onion bacterial diseases pose a serious economic risk to growers as they can lead to catastrophic crop losses. Moisture in the plant canopy plays a critical role in onion bacterial disease development by dispersing the pathogens onto plants (e.g., in splashing water) and keeping conditions conducive for bacterial growth. For this reason, irrigation management can be a promising avenue for controlling bacterial diseases in regions where irrigation is used widely, particularly overhead irrigation. This study investigated the effects of in-season irrigation frequency and timing of the final irrigation on onion bacterial bulb rot and marketable bulb yield over the 2020 and 2021 growing seasons in Washington State’s semi-arid Columbia Basin, using overhead irrigation. Irrigating twice as often but for shorter periods did not increase the incidence of onion bacterial diseases or affect yield compared to longer, less frequent irrigation events under the conditions of this experiment. However, timing of the final irrigation did influence bacterial disease incidence. Irrigating until the tops (leaves and necks) had fallen over on 90% of onion plants led to culling of more bulbs at harvest as a result of bacterial rot and more bulbs with bacterial rot after five months in storage compared to plots in which irrigation was stopped two weeks earlier, at 5–10% tops down. Ending irrigation at 5–10% tops down did not reduce marketable yield or affect bulb size distribution. In semi-arid regions, careful irrigation management can be an important part of managing onion bacterial diseases, particularly at the end of the season when onion plants are most vulnerable to neck and bulb infection.
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Claims 7
Claim · model-written summary
More frequent shorter irrigation did not increase onion bacterial disease incidence.
- Taxon
- onion
Allium cepat0 - Treatment
- Irrigating twice as often but for shorter periodse0
- Outcome
- incidence of onion bacterial diseasese0
- Direction
- did not increasee0
- Comparator
- longer, less frequent irrigation eventse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Irrigating twice as often but for shorter periods did not increase the incidence of onion bacterial diseases or affect yield compared to longer, less frequent irrigation events”
t0“onion”
Claim · model-written summary
More frequent shorter irrigation did not affect onion yield.
- Taxon
- onionAllium cepat0
- Treatment
- Irrigating twice as often but for shorter periodse0
- Outcome
- yielde0
- Direction
- did not increasee0
- Comparator
- longer, less frequent irrigation eventse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Irrigating twice as often but for shorter periods did not increase the incidence of onion bacterial diseases or affect yield compared to longer, less frequent irrigation events”
t0“onion”
Claim · model-written summary
Irrigation until 90% tops down increased bulbs culled for bacterial rot at harvest relative to stopping at 5–10% tops down.
- Taxon
- onionAllium cepae0
- Treatment
- Irrigating until the tops (leaves and necks) had fallen over on 90% of onion plantse0
- Outcome
- culling of more bulbs at harvest as a result of bacterial rote0
- Direction
- moree0
- Comparator
- irrigation was stopped two weeks earlier, at 5–10% tops downe0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Irrigating until the tops (leaves and necks) had fallen over on 90% of onion plants led to culling of more bulbs at harvest as a result of bacterial rot and more bulbs with bacterial rot after five months in storage compared to plots in which irrigation was stopped two weeks earlier, at 5–10% tops down.”
Claim · model-written summary
Irrigation until 90% tops down increased bulb rot after five months of storage.
- Taxon
- onionAllium cepae0
- Treatment
- Irrigating until the tops (leaves and necks) had fallen over on 90% of onion plantse0
- Outcome
- bulbs with bacterial rot after five months in storagee0
- Direction
- moree0
- Comparator
- irrigation was stopped two weeks earlier, at 5–10% tops downe0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Irrigating until the tops (leaves and necks) had fallen over on 90% of onion plants led to culling of more bulbs at harvest as a result of bacterial rot and more bulbs with bacterial rot after five months in storage compared to plots in which irrigation was stopped two weeks earlier, at 5–10% tops down.”
Claim · model-written summary
Stopping irrigation at 5–10% tops down did not reduce marketable yield.
- Taxon
- onionAllium cepat0
- Treatment
- Ending irrigation at 5–10% tops downe0
- Outcome
- marketable yielde0
- Direction
- did not reducee0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Ending irrigation at 5–10% tops down did not reduce marketable yield or affect bulb size distribution.”
t0“onion”
Claim · model-written summary
Stopping irrigation at 5–10% tops down did not affect bulb size distribution.
- Taxon
- onionAllium cepat0
- Treatment
- Ending irrigation at 5–10% tops downe0
- Outcome
- bulb size distributione0
- Direction
- did not reducee0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Ending irrigation at 5–10% tops down did not reduce marketable yield or affect bulb size distribution.”
t0“onion”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors recommend careful end-of-season irrigation to manage onion bacterial diseases in semi-arid regions.
- Taxon
- onionAllium cepae0
- Outcome
- careful irrigation managemente0
- Setting
- semi-arid regionse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“In semi-arid regions, careful irrigation management can be an important part of managing onion bacterial diseases, particularly at the end of the season when onion plants are most vulnerable to neck and bulb infection.”
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