Duhan, D.S.Swagat Ranjan Behera2024-01-162024-01-162023-08-07https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810206321A field experiment entitled “Response of nitrogen and foliar spray of nano urea in sponge gourd [Luffa cylindrica (L.) Roem.]” was conducted at the Research Farm of the Department of Vegetable Science, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar during the spring-summer seasons of 2022 and 2023 to study the effect various nitrogen and nano urea doses on growth, yield, quality and nitrogen use efficiency of sponge gourd crop and economics of the treatments. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three replications. The main plot treatments comprised two genotypes (Pusa Chikni and Phule Prajakta) and the subplot treatments comprised ten different nitrogen and nano urea doses [N1: RDF (50 kg N, 25 kg P2O5 and 25 kg K2O per ha); N2: Two foliar sprays of nano urea @ 2 ml/L at flowering and fruiting time; N3: Two foliar sprays of nano urea @ 4 ml/L at flowering and fruiting time; N4: 75% RDN + Two foliar sprays of nano urea @ 2 ml/L at flowering and fruiting time; N5: 75% RDN + Two foliar sprays of nano urea @ 4 ml/L at flowering and fruiting time; N6: 75% RDN + One foliar spray of nano urea @ 4 ml/L at fruiting time; N7: 50% RDN + Two foliar sprays of nano urea @ 2 ml/L at flowering and fruiting time; N8: 50% RDN + Two foliar sprays of nano urea @ 4 ml/L at flowering and fruiting time; N9: 50% RDN + One foliar spray of nano urea @ 4 ml/L at fruiting time and N10: Control]. Between the two genotypes, Pusa Chikni recorded higher values for growth parameters (vine length at 60 DAS, 90 DAS and at final harvest; number of primary branches per vine and internodal length), number of fruits per plant, fruit yield per plant, yield per hectare and crop duration, and performed better in terms of earliness with respect to days to 50 per cent flowering, days to first male and female flower opening, nodes to first male and female flower and days to first fruit harvest in both the years of study. On the other hand, Phule Prajakta registered higher values for length, diameter and average weight of fruit, quality parameters (TSS content in fruit, and nitrogen and protein content in plant and fruit) and available soil nitrogen after final harvest. Among the various nitrogen and nano urea doses, treatment N5 (75% RDN + Two foliar sprays of nano urea @ 4 ml/L at flowering and fruiting time) proved to be the best in terms of overall growth, yield and quality parameters, and nitrogen use efficiency of the crop. From economics point of view, the highest gross returns, net returns and benefit-cost ratio were realized under treatment N5 (75% RDN + Two foliar sprays of nano urea @ 4 ml/L at flowering and fruiting time) in both the years of investigation.EnglishThesis