GROWTH AND YIELD OF CUCUMBER AS INFLUENCED BY STEM PRUNING AND FOLIAR APPLICATION OF GIBBERELLIC ACID AND CYTOKININ

Abstract

An experiment was conducted during the period of April to June 2021 at Horticulture farm of Shere-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka 1207, Bangladesh to evaluate the effect of stem pruning

and foliar application of gibberellic acid (GA 3 ) and cytokinin on growth and yield of cucumber. The experiment was laid out in the Randomized Complete Block Design with four replications. Treatment as four levels of gibberellic acid (GA 3 ) and cytokinin application i.e., T 0 = 50 ppm GA 3 spray, T 2 = 2.5 ppm cytokinin spray, T 3 = 50 ppm GA 3 and 2.5 ppm cytokinin spray; and three levels of stem pruning i.e., P 0 = No pruning, P 1 =No spray, T 1 = Pruning to two primary branches, P 2 = Pruning to three primary branches which in combination made 12 treatment combination. Application of GA 3 and cytokinin resulted the highest vine length (27.13 cm at 25 DAS and 74.00 cm at 35 DAS), number of leaves (12.33 at 25 DAS and 34.50 at 45 DAS), number of fruits (15.08 plant -1 ), individual fruit weight (242.99 g), fruit yield (23.05 t ha -1 ) from T 3 treatment. In case of pruning, the highest vine length (73.34 cm at 35 DAS), number of leaves (39.31 plant at 45 DAS), number of fruits (14.75 plant -1 ), individual fruit weight (266.17 g), fruit yield (23.07 t ha ) from P 2 treatment. The combined effect of P 2 T 3 gave the best result for all vegetative and reproductive growth and development i.e., vine length (100.75 cm), total number of fruits (17.88) and fruit yield (34.68 t ha

-1 ). So, the combination of P 2 T 3 found the best to cultivate cucumber.