author(s)
SA Ganie, BA Wani, Mushtaq Ahmad Wani, BA Zargar, NA Mir and Rigzin Safal

abstract
An experiment was conducted to identify promising accessions suited for cultivation under cold arid conditions of Leh, Ladakh. The main objective of the experiment was to evaluate the different varieties of onion for different morphological traits, Yield and maggot incidence under arid hill conditions of Ladakh. Seven onion varieties, namely Brown Spanish, Yellow Globe, Onion red, Red Coral, Bhima Shakti, Pinnari, Rosa bella and Local as Check with three replications were the treatments of the experiment. The observations were recorded on plant height, No. of leaves/plant, days to maturity, Pseudo length, Bulb diameter, Neck diameter, Bulb weight (fresh), yield/ha and maggot incidence. All the varieties have shown significant differences for all the traits under study. Bhima shakti showed highest plant height (63.90 cm) whereas red coral exhibited lowest plant height (46.33 cm). For number of leaves/plant yellow Globe was at 1st number with 15.96 /plant flowed by Local (11.86/plant). Among the 7 varieties including check Red Corel was early in maturity (138.66 days) followed by Bhima shakti (142.33 days). Highest yield/ha was exhibited by red coral (19.17 q/ha) followed by Bhima shakti (18.60 q/ha) where as lowest yield/ha was observed in Pinnari (16.21 q/ha). Maggot pest incidence was observed lowest in Red coral (11.0%) followed by Local (14.66%) similarly highest maggot incidence was observed in the variety Bhima Shakti (15.00%). Among the seven varieties Red coral exhibits highest yield and lowest maggot incidence followed by Bhima shakti under cold arid conditions of Ladakh. Further Neck diameter which is regarded as storability parameter was lowest in Red coral (10.26mm) followed by Pinnari (10.46 mm).