evaluation of short day onion (allium cepa l.) genotypes for quantity and quality traits

Purpose: in the first stage to produce open pollinated and hybridonion cultivars, identification of compatible genotypes as breedingbase populations with the climatic conditions is of special importance.thus, this research was performed to evaluate short day onion hybridsand achieve a breeding base population by identifying the bestgenotypes in terms of quantity and quality traits and also for studyingthe reaction of genotypes to the climatic conditions of isfahan andkhuzestan. research method: fifteen onion genotypes wereevaluated as complete block design with three replications in twolocations (isfahan and khuzestan) under field condition during the2017-2018 growing season. the traits evaluated included: bulb yield,average bulb weight, dry matter content, total soluble solids, andweight loss. findings: according to the results of isfahan location,savannah sweet and saba hybrids had the highest bulb yield (42.72t/ha and 41.05 t/ha, respectively) and vania hybrid with highsignificant different (p< 0.05) was showed the lowest bulb yield (19.77t/ha). in khuzestan location, sv6326, saba and savannah sweet forbulb yield (92.38, 89.71 and 89.14 t/ha, respectively) were recognizedas super hybrids, in contrast, hybrids: early super select, behbahanimproved population, super perfect, sahar and vania, wereconsidered as weak hybrids (bulb yields<60 t/ha). in terms of qualitytraits, behbahan improved population with 18.84% and 14.75% oftotal soluble solids as well as 19.52% and 15.77% of dry mattercontent in isfahan and khuzestan locations had significant differencefrom the other hybrids. saba hybrid was identified as high bulb yieldwith low weight loss hybrid, vania hybrid recognized as low bulb yieldand the savannah sweet was identified as high yield with high weightloss in two experiments. research limitations: further work could bedone with other commercial short day onion hybrids.originality/value: these genotypes can be used as parental materialin the quantity and quality improvement of bulb onion. in futurebreeding programmes, emphasis should be given to saba hybrid forproducing high bulb yield and best quality onion variety.