The seeds of onion cv Agrifound Light Red were produced
at the research farm of the Indian Institute of Vegetable
Research (IIVR), Varanasi. The soil of IIVR, Varanasi is sandy
loam type. For planting onion bulbs, field was prepared by
harrowing followed by ploughing twice and planking to bring
the soil to fine tilth. Healthy and vigourous onion bulbs were
selected and transplanted during the first fortnight of November
2001 at a spacing of 45 cm 30 cm between rows and hills,
respectively. All the recommended package of practices was
followed to raise vigourous and healthy seed crop. The matured
umbels were harvested when first set seeds in the umbels turn
black (first night of May 2002) and were shade dried for a week
before extracting the seeds. The seeds were separated from the
umbels manually, cleaned by winnowing and upgraded with the
help of gravity separator (Westrup, Denmark). The seed
moisture content was around 9% at the time of threshing. The
seeds were dried in a tray drier at 35 8C for 3 days, which
resulted in reducing the SMC to approximately 7.0%. The dried
seeds were desiccated over moisture indicator 1–3 mm ACS
silica gel (M/s Merck Ltd., Mumbai) to further bring down the
SMC to 6.0%.