MINERAL BIOFORTIFICATION TO ENHANCE THE NUTRITIONAL QUALITY AND PRODUCTIVITY OF MANGALORE CUCUMBER (Cucumis maderaspatensis L.) IN ALFISOLS
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Date
2024-02-23
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UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURAL SCINCES BANGALORE
Abstract
Field experiments were conducted at V. C. Farm, Mandya during 2022 and 2023 to study the mineral biofortification to enhance the nutritional quality and productivity of Mangalore cucumber and its effect on soil properties. The experiments were laid out in
RCBD design with fifteen treatments and replicated thrice with different agronomic approaches of biofortication such as foliar spray of HA, fortified HA, inorganic salts and soil application of fortified HA. The pooled data of four experiments revealed that
significantly higher values of growth attributes such as vine length, number branches, leaf area, chlorophyll content, yield attributes such as number of fruits per vine (4.35), fruit length (31.03 cm), fruit diameter (17.75 cm), fruit weight and fruit yield (30.6 t ha-1) and
higher B:C ratio of 2.60 was recorded with two foliar sprays of Ca + Fe + Zn fortified (each @ 50 ppm) HA @ 0.25 % at 30 and 45 DAS along with PoP (T7) it recorded on par values with T4, T5 and T6 (Ca, Fe and Zn fortified HA @ 0.25 %, respectively). Quality parameters
such as moisture content, TSS, ascorbic acid content and shelf life did not vary significantlydue to treatments however numerically higher values of quality parameter and significantly higher crude protein, nutrient content and uptake by Mangalore cucumber was recorded in
T7. Higher nutrient status of post harvest soil was recorded in T2 when compared to T7 due to lower uptake of nutrients and soil dehydrogenase activity, microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen were higher in treatment with soil application of fortified humic acid. Foliar
application Ca, Fe, Zn fortified humic acid along with PoP resulted in 33.62 per cent increased yield and higher B:C ratio of 2.60 compared to PoP which recorded yield of 22.90 t ha-1 and B:C ratio of 1.98.
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MINERAL BIOFORTIFICATION TO ENHANCE, QUALITY AND PRODUCTIVITY OF MANGALORE