The Effect of Nitrogen and Moisture Superabsorbent on the Yield, Biological Traits, and Nitrogen Percentage in the Pumpkin seeds

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of nitrogen and moisture superabsorbent on yield, yield components, seed nitrogen and biological traits in the field of pumpkin during two cropping years (2018-2019) in Kermanshah, Iran. The experiment was carried out as a split-plot based on Randomized Complete Block Design (RBCD) with three replications. The main plot factor was the application of moisture superabsorbent at various levels of 0 (control), 40, 80, 120 kg ha-1, respectively, and nitrogen fertilization at the levels of 0, 50, 100 and 150 kg ha-1 were considered as sub-factor. Results show that treatments significantly affected fruit fresh weight, fruit dry weight, leaf dry weight, stem dry weight, fruit number per plant, grain weight, grain number per fruit, grain nitrogen percentage, except for fruit number per plant. In the most traits, there was an increasing trend when nitrogen levels increased, although N2 levels of 100 and 150 kg ha-1 were not significantly different. In addition, increasing the moisture superabsorbent enhanced the mentioned traits. As a result, the combination of nitrogen 100 and superabsorbent 120 is the best and most economical combination.