Vol. 11, Special Issue 3 (2022)

Author(s):
Abhilash Singh, Dhirendra Singh, Lalit Bhatt, PK Singh and Poonam Gautam

Abstract:
The experiment was carried out during two consecutive seasons of 2020 and 2020-2021 (i.e. summer and winter respectively) at Vegetable Research Centre of G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand (India), to study the effect of NPK fertigation and scheduling on growth attributes of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) under polyhouse. The experiment consisted of four levels of fertigation (120:60:60, 100:50:50, 80:40:40 and 60:30:30 N, P₂O₅ and K₂O kg ha^-1, respectively) and two levels of scheduling which were based on growth curve of cucumber S₁ [25 per cent of each N, P₂O₅ and K₂O at 30 day interval after first fertigation, respectively] and S₂ [25% of N, P₂O₅ and K₂O, 25% N, 15% P₂O₅ and 20% K₂O, 40% N, 15% P₂O₅ and 25% K₂O, 20% N, 50% P₂O₅ and 40% K₂O and 15% N, 20% P₂O₅ and 15% K₂O at each 30 days interval after first fertigation] i.e. eight treatments with one extra treatment (recommended dose of fertilizer through traditional methods). It consists of total nine treatments. The experiment was laid out in factorial Randomized Block Design (FRBD) with three replications. The results from the study revealed early flowering recorded with 60 percent of RDF through fertigation, maximum number of tendrils (40.55 and 41.02) and nodes (28.57 and 29.53) were recorded with plant receiving 120 per cent fertigation. Among scheduling maximum number of tendrils (39.14 and 40.27) and nodes at final harvest (28.20 and 28.81) were recorded. From the study, it was concluded that fertigation of 120 kg N, 60 kg P₂O₅ and 60 kg K₂O ha^-1 with S₂ can be recommended for cucumber cultivation under polyhouse condition.