Visual and Keeping Quality of Stored Bulb Onions as Affected by Harvest and Postharvest Treatments

Table 4

Visual quality of bulb onions subjected to harvest and postharvest treatments.

Factors	Treatments	Skin rots	Skin colour	% marketable grade
Harvesting stage	75% top fall	0.44 C	2.58 A	97.75 A
	50% top fall	2.06 B	1.89 B	71.14 B
	25% top fall	5.33 A	1.36 C	13.92 C
	value	<0.0001	<0.0001	<0.0001
	Standard error	0.164	0.073	0.365
Curing period	2 weeks’ curing	1.28 C	2.44 A	68.89 A
	1-week curing	2.25 B	1.89 B	61.47 B
	No curing	4.31 A	1.50 C	52.44 C
	value	<0.0001	<0.0001	<0.0001
	Standard error	0.164	0.073	0.365
Topping time	Topping after	2.19 B	2.06 A	62.85 A
	Topping before	3.04 A	1.83 B	59.02 B
	value	<0.0001	0.010	<0.0001
	Standard error	0.134	0.060	0.298
Seasonal variations	Season 1	2.72	1.91	60.07 B
	Season 2	2.50	1.98	61.80 A
	value	0.243^NS	0.383^NS	<0.0001
	Standard error	0.134	0.060	0.298

Means followed by the same letter within the column for each treatment factors are not significantly different at alpha = 0.05; NS: not significant.