Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2020) 9(3): 3163-3172 3163 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2020.903.362 Accelerated Ageing for Prediction of Storability in Onion (Allium cepa L.) Seeds Manjunath V. Balikai 1* , N. K. Biradarpatil 1 , Jagadish Hosamani 2 and M. S. Biradar 2 1 Department of Seed Science and Technology, 2 Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, Vijayapura University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad- 580005, Karnataka, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Onion (Allium cepa L.) is one of the commercially important vegetables and major among the bulbous crops belongs to the family Amaryllidaceae. Currently, the demand for onion is increasing, mainly due to its nutritive and medicinal value such as, antibacterial and antioxidant effects (Doijode, 2001). The non availability of quality seeds coupled with poor germination and low seedling vigour are the serious problems limiting the production of onion. Further, onion seeds exhibit poor storability because of physio-chemical factors like temperature, moisture content, atmospheric relative humidity, initial seed quality, the physical and chemical composition of seed, storage structure, gaseous exchange, packaging materials etc. (Doijode, 1998). The use of physiological low A laboratory experiment was conducted to predict the storability by accelerated ageing in onion in the Department of Seed Science and Technology, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, during 2018- 19. The experiment consisted of fifteen seed lots with varied levels of germination and it was laid out in CRD design with four replications. All seed lots were subjected to: standard germination test, electrical conductivity test, radicle emergence test, accelerated ageing test and field emergence test. The results indicated that, accelerated ageing (AA) and field emergence was highly correlated with r = 0.925 and also with germination (r = 0.923). The accelerated ageing and electrical conductivity was correlated with r = -0.933. The correlation between accelerated ageing and mean germination time was -0.857. Thus, AA test can be potentially used for predicting the storability and evaluating seed vigour in onion seeds. Keywords Germination, vigour, accelerated ageing, onion Accepted: 25 February 2020 Available Online: 10 March 2020 Article Info International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 9 Number 3 (2020) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com