Storage performance of forced ventilated, natural ventilated, and traditional methods on the quality of onion bulbs

Abstract

An experiment investigating the losses of onion
bulbs occurring during the storage in different storage
structures was conducted at the Department of Farm
Structures, Sindh Agriculture University, Tandojam.
Freshly harvested onion bulbs free from defects were
collected from the local market of Nasarpur and were then
placed in different storage structures (forced ventilated
wooden structure, naturally ventilated wooden structure,
and traditional method) for 60 days. The quality in terms of
different parameters that is physiological loss in weight,
rotting, sprouting and firmness were carried out at an
interval of 10 days. The results showed that the storage
time and storage method had a significant effect on the
quality of onion bulbs. Weight loss (0-23.5%), rotting (0- 26.8%) and sprouting (0-15.2%) of onion bulbs showed an
increasing trend throughout the storage period (60 days).
However, firmness of the onion bulb decreased with
increasing storage period (8.3 to 3.2 lbs). Forced ventilated
wooden structure maintained lowest weight loss (14.8%),
rotting (7.4%) and sprouting (7.8%) with highest firmness
(5.6 lbs), followed by naturally ventilated wooden
structure and traditional method respectively. Ambient
temperature and relative humidity were lower in forced
ventilated wooden structure followed by natural ventilated
wooden structure and traditional method respectively. The
present study concludes that forced ventilated wooden
structure resulted to be better in maintaining the quality
parameters of onion bulbs, the adoption of this method is
strongly suggested to reduce the storage losses at farm
level. © 2020 Department of Agricultural Sciences, AIOU