Effect of growing methods on seed yield and quality in bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria)

Abstract

The present investigation was planned to know the feasibility of trailing method of growing vis-a-vis traditional method and their effects on growth, flowering, fruit set, seed yield and quality traits in bottle gourd [Lagenaria siceraria (Mol.) Standl]. The results revealed that trailing method had significantly higher vine length (4.56 m), number of leaves/vine (40.48), leaf area (42 807 cm2) and number of nodes/vine (40.48) at 55 DAS. The reduction in number of days to anthesis to first male flower (49.8 days) and female flower (54.6 days) in trailing as compared to traditional method. The fruit development attributes, viz. number of fruit set (4.08), matured fruits/vine (3.55), fruit weight (2.30 kg) were recorded significantly higher in trailing but significantly less fruit width (9.56 cm), fruit cavity (7.21 cm) and cavity volume (1996.2 cm3) were recorded in trailing method. Seed yield attributes, i.e. the number of total seeds/fruit (723.01), number of filled seeds/fruit (651.88), seed yield/fruit (98.33 g), seed yield/vine (346.16 g) and seed yield/acre (410.13 kg) was significantly higher in trailing method. The significant increase in germination (97.54%) was recorded in trailing system as compared to traditional system (95.21%). Similarly, seedling length (42.66 cm), seedling dry weight (6.56 mg) and embryo weight (7.49 mg) were significantly higher in trailing. Vigour index I (4161.07) and VI II (63.92) were also significantly superior in trailing. The presence of fungi was lower in trailing than traditional among the infected fruits.