LOWER HILLS OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

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1 Agric. Sci. Digest., 31 (2) : , 2011 AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATION CENTRE ccjournals.com / indianjournals.com nals.com RESPONSE OF SUMMER SQUASH VARIETIES TO PLANTING TIME IN LOWER HILLS OF HIMACHAL PRADESH H. Dev Dr YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Department of Vegetable Science, Nauni , India. Received : Accepted : ABSTRACT The 30 days old healthy seedlings of three varieties of summer squash viz. V1: Bulam House, V2: Cora F1 and V3: Chungma Zucchini raised in poly bags during three consecutive spring seasons from 2005 to 2007 were transplanted on five planting times at fortnightly intervals viz. P1: Februar ebruary y 16, P2: March ch 01, P3: March ch 16, P4: April 01 and P5: April 16 in a randomized block design with three replications every year at a spacing of 90x60 cm having plot size of 2.70x2.40 m with a population of 12 plants per plot. The recommended doses of manures and fertilizers and all agronomic practices were adopted timely for raising a healthy and normal crop. The data on yield (q/ha), average fruit weight/size (g), number of fruits per plant, plant height (cm) and days to maturity were recorded. Significant differences were recorded for all the traits studied during all the three years. The maximum yield (766.2 q/ha), average fruit weight/size ( g) and number of fruits per plant (22.6) were produced by planting the variety Cora F1 on Februar ebruary y 16. The delay in planting reduced the yield, its attributes and also days to maturity.. It is concluded that summer squash variety Cora F1 planted in mid Februar ebruary gave the highest yield followed by Chungma Zucchini under the low hill conditions. Key words : Summer squash, Cucurbita pepo L., Varieties, Planting time, Cora F1, Yield. INTRODUCTION The summer squash (Cucurbita pepo L.) is grown in summer. Its fruits are generally cooked when raw and seeds are immature. Squashes botanically comprise of three species C. pepo, C. maxima and C. moschata. Horticulturally, however, squash cultivars are commonly divided into two classes, bush and vining. Bush cultivars produce stems with shortened internodes and set fruits in close succession. Generally, the fruits are ready for picking in about six weeks and picked tender within a few days after pollination. These bush squashes do not store well and are commonly called as summer squash. The vining cultivars produce large plants with one or more long stems, covering the ground to a distance of 6 metres, the fruits are allowed to full maturity and stored for extended periods. Winter squash and pumpkin are included in this group. There are also vining cultivars in summer squash but all the pumpkin cultivars are vining type. In the hills of Northern India, its cultivation is mostly confined to mid hills where summers are mild, the sowing season starts from March-April and the crop matures in May-June, whereas, in lower hills where the summers are a bit harsh and the crop is attacked severely by fruit fly, other insect-pests and diseases; among the various other components of production technology, standardization of planting time for many released varieties and hybrids from the public and private

2 sectors will go a long way in increasing the area and production under this newly emerging, short duration and high yielding crop. MATERIALS AND METHODS The present investigations were carried out on summer squash during three consecutive spring seasons from 2005 to 2007 at the Experimental Farm of Regional Horticultural and Forestry Research Station, Bhota, District Hamirpur (HP). The 30 days old healthy seedlings of three varieties viz. V1: Bulam House, V2: Cora F1 and V3: Chungma Zucchini raised in poly bags of size 15x10 cm and then transplanted on five planting times at fortnightly intervals viz. P1: February 16, P2: March 01, P3: March 16, P4: April 01 and P5: April 16 in a randomized block design with three replications every year at a spacing of 90x60 cm having plot size of 2.70x2.40 m with a population of 12 plants per plot. The sandy loam soil of well prepared field was incorporated with recommended doses of manures and fertilizers and all agronomic practices were adopted for raising a good crop. The data on yield (q/ha) were recorded on plot basis, whereas, that of average fruit weight/size (g), number of fruits per plant and plant height (cm) were recorded on ten randomly selected plants. Days to maturity were also counted from transplanting to start of harvesting. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Data on yield, average fruit weight/size, fruits per plant, plant height and days to maturity were statistically analyzed and the mean values for three years along with the pooled means are presented in Table 1 for varieties and planting time and in Table 2 for interaction of varieties and planting time. I Effect t of variety: During the period of investigation conducted for three years the highest yields of q/ha (2005), q/ha (2006) and q/ha (2007) were produced by Cora F1 (Table 1). The average fruit weight or size and number of fruits per plant were also recorded maximum by Cora F1 during all the three years with an average of g fruit Vol. 31, No. 2, weight or size and 17.2 fruits per plant, respectively. Cora F1 produced maximum yield by producing more number and larger sized fruits per plant. However, all the varieties attained almost similar heights with 40 days to maturity except Chungma Zucchini maturing in 45 days. Calabrese, et al (2007) also reported that cv. Cora F1 produced about 7 t/ha more than other cultivars viz. Goldi, Orientos, Aquilone and Albatros. Mulkey and Talbot (1993) reported that squash cultivar Jade gave significantly higher yield than the other 12 varieties. II Effect of planting time: The variation in planting time significantly influenced yield and its attributes during the period under investigation (Table 1). The highest yield of q/ha (2005), q/ha (2006) and q/ ha (2007) obtained by planting the crop on February 16. It was closely followed by that on March 01 where average mean yield of q/ha was recorded. The average fruit weight or size ( g), number of fruits per plant (19.7) and plant height (90.9 cm) were also recorded highest on February 16 planting during all the three years and was closely followed by March 01 planting. The delay in planting after March 01 resulted in continuous decrease in yield and its attributes and also days to maturity were reduced. This might be attributed to the favourable mild temperatures during the early planted crop, whereas, the later ones were exposed to higher temperatures resulting in the attainment of early maturity with reduced yields. These results were in agreement with those of Ravinder and Kang (2005) who also observed that crop sown in the second fortnight of March registered the best performance, whereas, delay in sowing up to the end of April reduced the yield. Rajender et al (1989) reported that the early and total yields in terms of number of fruits/plant, kg/plant and q/ha were the highest with the early sowing on December 02, whereas, Mulkey and Talbot (1993) reported significantly higher yield from April 16 planting. Sonia and Sharma (2006) also reported significant effect of transplanting dates on yields and its attributes in cold dry temperate

3 108 AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE DIGEST Table 1: Effect of variety and planting time on yield and its attributes in summer squash. Traits Yield (q/ha) Average fruit weight/size (g) Fruits per plant(no.) Plant height (cm) Days to maturity /Treatments Pooled Pooled Pooled Pooled Variety Bulam House Cora F Chungma Zucchini Mean CD (5%) NS NS NS - Planting time February March March April April Mean CD (5%)

4 Vol. 31, No. 2, Table 2: Effect of interaction of variety and planting time on yield and its attributes in summer squash. Traits/Treatments Yield (q/ha) Average fruit weight/size (g) Fruits per plant(no.) Plant height (cm) Days to maturity Pooled Pooled Pooled Pooled Bulam House X February Bulam House X March Bulam House X March Bulam House X April Bulam House X April Cora F1X February Cora F1X March Cora F1X March Cora F1X April Cora F1X April Chungma Zucchini X February 16 Chungma Zucchini X March 01 Chungma Zucchini X March 16 Chungma Zucchini X April 01 Chungma Zucchini X April 16 Mean CD (5%)

5 110 AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE DIGEST region and concluded that summer squash could be transplanted up to first week of July under protected environment. III Effect of variety and planting time interaction: The interaction effect of variety and planting time was found to be significant for all the characters during all the three years (Table 2). The maximum yield (766.2 q/ha) was produced by planting the variety Cora F1 on February 16 with 50 days to maturity. The maximum fruit weight ( g) and number of fruits per plant (22.6) were also recorded by the same combination, however, the plants of REFERENCES Bulam House planted at the same time grew taller. The delayed planting reduced the yield, its attributes as well as days to maturity. It is concluded that summer squash variety Cora F1 planted in mid February gave the highest yield followed by Chungma Zucchini under the low hill conditions. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This work has been done under National Agricultural Technology Project of Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the financial assistance rendered by the Agricultural Technology Management Agency, Hamirpur (HP) is duly acknowledged. Calabrese, N.; Baruzzi, F.; Signorella, G. and Damato, G. (2007) Yield and microbial evaluation of summer squash pistillate flowers for ready to use product. First results. Acta Horticulturae 741: Mulkey, W.A. and Talbot, T.P. (1993) Varieties, planting dates and spacing for high yield zucchini summer squash. Louisiana Agriculture 36(1): Rajender, Singh; Arora, S.K.; Pandita, M.L. and Jitender, KuMarch (1989) Effect of plant growth substances on earliness and yield of summer squash (Cucurbita pepo L.). Haryana Agricultural University Journal of Research 19(4): Ravinder, Kaur and Kang, S.S. (2005) Integrated management of cucurbit mosaic. Integrated plant disease management Challenging problems in horticultural and forest pathology, Solan, (HP) India, November 14-15, 2005; p Sonia, Sood and Sharma, J.J. (2006) Performance of summer squash (Cucurbita pepo L.) under different environments in cold temperate conditions of Himachal Pradesh. Scientific Horticulture 10: