Swarna Alaukik,Debi Archana Nayak, Nikhil Kumar Nayak, Subhendu Jena and Sukirti Mohanty
Abstract
The present investigation was to study the âEffect of different levels of N, P, K fertilizers on growth, yield, and quality of pointed gourd (Trichosanthes dioica Roxb.) cv. Swarna Alaukikâ was conducted from November 2022 to May 2023 under Odisha plains at Agricultural Research Station, Binjhagiri, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Siksha âOâ Anusandhan (Deemed to be) University, Bhubaneswar to find out the growth, yield, and quality attributes of pointed gourd in different levels N, P, K fertilizer doses. Several workers reported higher yields using nutrients. However, information on N, P, and K requirements of pointed gourd and other perennial cucurbits is scarce under Odisha conditions. The results obtained in this experiment revealed that the maximum values for the yield attributing trades such as fruit length (10.33cm), fruit girth (12.15cm), single fruit weight (36.03g), number of fruits per vine (174.33), yield per vine (7.32kg), yield per plot (44.43kg), the number of pickings (9.25), fruit yield(34.28t/ha), and post-harvest parameters such as total sugar (4.01%), TSS (4.26 °brix), reducing sugar (1.84%) and ascorbic acid (26.86mg/100g) was recorded with T5 (100:70:55kg NPK/ha) application. The maximum values for vegetative parameters like vine length (294.86cm), number of leaves (33.01), vine girth (1.34cm), number of primary branches (7.22), node at which first male flower appeared (8.18), node at which first female flower appeared (10.38), internodal length (18.39 cm), leaf area (78.03cm2) was recorded with T6. Thus, the application of T6 (125:80:65 kg NPK/ha) enhances the vegetative growth due to more availability of nutrients to the crop during the vegetative phase of the plant but after a certain extent, the yield reduces as compared to T5 (100:70:55kg NPK/ha). The highest yield is obtained from the treatment T5 (100:70:55kg NPK/ha) which was the total effect of yield attributing characters like number of fruits per plant, single fruit weight, etc. With the application of T6 (125:80:65kg NPK/ha) although the vegetative characters show significant growth the yield contributing characters reduce to some extent. Thus, the experiment suggested that application of T5 (100:70:55kg NPK/ ha) to the pointed gourd crop gives a higher yield in Odisha climatic conditions, judicious application of fertilizers plays an important role in its yield attributing characters, and as well as post-harvest characters.