Nutrient management in snake gourd gnder partial shade

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at the College of Agriculture, Vellayani during March – July, 1988 to study the influence of three levels of nitrogen (50, 70 and 90 kg/ha), phosphorus (15, 25 and 35 kg/ha) and potassium (25, 50 and 75 kg/ha) on growth, yield, nutrient content and uptake of major nutrients in snake gourd cv. TA -19, under partially shaded condition of coconut garden. The experiment was laid out in a 33 + 1 partially confounded factorial experiment in RBD with two replications, confounding NP2 K and NP2 K2 in replication I and II respectively.

Higher levels of nitrogen had profound positive influence on growth characters like number of days taken for opening of the first female flower and its node of emergence, inter nodal length and total dry matter production. Higher levels of phosphorus had significant positive effect on the days taken for opening of the first female flower.

Yield attributes like fruit set and harvest index were not significantly influenced by the major nutrients. However, control recorded a significantly lower fruit set than the treatments. Nitrogen and phosphorus levels significantly increased the male to female flower ratio. The yield increased linearly with respect to nitrogen levels. Phosphorus and potassium did not show any significant influence on yield beyond their lowest levels.

Fruit weight increased significantly with higher levels of nitrogen. Fruit length and girth and the number of fruits per plant showed an increasing trend with varying levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium but were not significant. However, in all the cases, the control plots recorded significantly lower values for these parameters.

The levels of nitrogen had significant positive influence on the protein content of fruit. The nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium contents in fruits and plants were significantly and positively influenced by their respective levels. The uptake of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium by fruits and whole plants were also significantly increased by their respective levels. In addition, nitrogen levels significantly influenced the uptake of phosphorus and potassium by whole plants and vice versa.