Vol. 11, Issue 4 (2022)

Author(s):
Raveena, Vinod Kumar Sharma, Pooja and Shilpa

Abstract:
An experiment was conducted during the off-season 2017 at the Research Farm of Department of Agricultural Engineering, College of Agriculture, CSK Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya, Palampur, to investigate the effect of date of transplanting, planting geometry and training system on the fruit quality, fruit yield and economics of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) under naturally ventilated polyhouse. The experiment was laid out in Factorial Randomized Block Design with three replications, consisting of eighteen treatments, comprising of three date of transplanting (1^st fortnight of March, 2^nd fortnight of March and 1^st fortnight of April), two planting geometry viz., 60 cm x 30 cm, 75 cm x 30 cm and three training systems viz., two shoots, three shoots and four shoots. Results revealed that plants transplanted earlier (1^st fortnight of March) at a wider spacing of (75 cm x 30 cm) recorded significantly higher fruit yield per plant (3.10 kg) while maximum fruit yield (1024.02 kg/100 m²) was recorded under closer spacing of 60 cm x 30 cm. With regards to the number of shoots per plant, plants with three shoots recorded significantly higher fruit yield per plant (3.48 kg) and fruit yield (1084.69 kg/100 m²). Study revealed that cucumber transplanted in the 1^st fortnight of march, spaced at 60 cm x 30 cm and trained to three shoots recorded maximum gross return, net return and B:C ratio. So we can conclude that plants transplanted in the 1^st fortnight of march, trained to three shoots and spaced at 60 cm x 30 cm apart were found to be the best for higher fruit yield and economic return.