Impact of sprout management on growth and yield of pointed gourd (Trichosanthes dioica Roxb.)
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Date
2019-07
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AAU, Jorhat
Abstract
The present invesigation entitled “Impact of sprout management on growth and yield of pointed gourd (Trichosanthes dioica Roxb.)” was carried out during February to October, 2018 in the Instructional cum Research Farm of Biswanath College of Agriculture, AAU, Biswanath Chariali.The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with four replications incorporating five pruning treatments viz., retention of one sprout (T1), retention of two sprouts (T2), retention of three sprouts (T3), retention of four sprouts (T4) and control, without pruning (T5). The morpho-physiological parameters, phenological characters, yield and quality parameters were significantly influenced by pruning treatments. Among the pruning treatments, T3 produced significantly higher vine length (195.47 cm and 384.95 cm at 90 and 120 DAP, respectively), internodal length (9.55 cm at 90 DAP and 12.21 cm at 120 DAP), number of leaves per vine with 170.33 at 90 DAP and 206.91at 120 DAP and leaf area per vine with 5491.36 cm2 and 6670.78 cm2 at 90 and 120 DAP, respectively. Among the phenological parameters, duration from fruit set to harvest (10.50 days), days to first harvest(106.18 days), total duration of the crop (198.27days) were found significantly less in T1 treatment. Among the physiological parameters, relative leaf water content (76.99%) and leaf chlorophyll content index (29.29) recorded significantly higher values under T3 treatment. In the same treatment of T3, yield per plant (4.21 kg) and yield per hectare (8.77 t) were found significantly higher along with significantly more number of female flowers per plant (238.50), fruits per plant (225.58). However, the length of fruit, fruit diameter, fruit volume, fruit fresh weight and number of seeds per fruit did not exhibit any significant difference due to pruning treatments. Among the quality parameters, T3 recorded significantly higher vitamin A (223.61 IU) in fruits while ascorbic acid (15.84 mg/100g) was found significantly higher in T1. Pest and diseases like powdery mildew, downy mildew, gummy stem blight, fruit fly, red pumkin beetle were observed at the initial stages of crop growth but the yield loss was minimum due to timely adoption of proper management practices. The study therefore, advocate that pruning treatment with retention of three sprouts (T3) produced the highest yield with higher B:C ratio of 2.14 and may be recommended for the growers of Assam for maximizing their production and profit