Chand, GurdevVerma, Shruti2024-01-122024-01-122023-11-29Verma, S. 2023. Study of Different Growing Substratum on Cucumber (Cucumis sativis L.) Under Soilless Condition, M.Sc. Thesis, SKUAST-Jammu, India.37162https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810206231An investigation entitled “Study of Different Growing Substratum on Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) Under Soilless Condition” was conducted in the Division of Plant Physiology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, SKUAST-Jammu. Two cucumber varieties were selected for the experiment i.e. desi kheera and hybrid cucumber which were sown in pro-trays and then transplanted in hydroponics and cocopeat growbags. The experiment was laid out in completely randomized design, consisting of 5 treatments viz., T1 control (cocopeat 100 %), T2 (cocopeat + perlite- 2:1), T3 (cocopeat + perlite + vermiculite- 2:1:1), T4 (cocopeat + perlite + vermiculite + vermicompost- 2:1:1:2) and T5 cocopeat growbags. After transplanting, data was recorded at three different stages of crop growth (20 DAT, 45 DAT and 90 DAT). The experimental results revealed that among the treatments, T4 showed overall best results. In morphological parameters such as plant height (156.66 cm and 154.44 cm), shoot length (127.03 cm and 125.37 cm), vine length (132.61 cm and 128.63 cm), number of leaves per plant (16.66 and 15.99), number of flowers per plant (12.00 and 10.16), T4 showed significant increase as compared to the control T1 but root length (34.62 cm and 33.33 cm) and root-shoot ratio (0.16 and 0.14) was significantly higher in T5 as compared to T1. As far as physiological and biochemical parameters viz. relative water content (87.72% and 86.00%), chlorophyll content by SPAD (47.80 and 46.03), total chlorophyll content (1.75 mg/g FW and 1.58 mg/g FW), ascorbic acid in fruits (6.88 mg/100g and 6.01 mg/100g), TSS (3.83 and 3.60) showed significant increase in T4 as compared to control T1. But relative stress injury (11.03 % and 12.76 %) showed the significant decrease as compare to T1 (12.2 % and 13.29 %). Fruit length (14.76 cm and 13.16 cm), fruit thickness (3.29 cm and 2.59 cm), number of fruits per plant (7.33 and 6.67), fruit weight (177.72 g and 147.06 g) showed the significant increase in T4 as compared to T1. Similarly the fruit yield per plant showed the significant increase in T4 (1.03 kg and 0.83 kg) as compared to T1 control (cocopeat alone) and T5 containing cocopeat growbags showed the significantly decreased mean values. The results clearly indicated that treatment T4 i.e., coco peat + perlite + vermiculite vermicompost (2:1:1:2) was found to be the most promising treatment for enhancing the morphological, physiological, biochemical, yield and quality parameters of both varieties of cucumber i.e., desi kheera and hybrid cucumber as compared to all other treatments. Also between the two varieties, desi kheera showed the best results as compared to the hybrid cucumber in both hydroponic and growbag conditionEnglishThesis