Influence of Seedling Age and Training on Yield Performance of Cucumber (Cucumis sativus)

Abstract

An experiment was conducted during the period of April to July 2019 at Horticulture farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207, Bangladesh to evaluate the yield performance of cucumber influenced by seedling age and training. The experiment was laid out in the Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. Treatment as three different age of seedling i.e. S1=15 days old seedling, S2=20 days old seedling, S3=25 days old seedling; and four levels of training i.e. T0=Control, T1=Removal of all branches up to 40 cm height, T2=Removal of all branches up to 80 cm height and T3=Removal of all branches up to 120 cm height which in combination made 12 treatment combination. ‘Baromashi’ (local variety) was used in this experiment. Different seedling age and levels of training showed significant variations on most of the parameters. In case of seedling age, the maximum average fruits per plant (17.18), individual fruit weight (174.33 gm) and fruit yield (41.63 ton/ha) was recorded from S3 treatment, whereas the lowest was recorded from S1 treatment. On the other hand, the maximum average fruits per plant (15.93), individual fruit weight (160.87 gm) and fruit yield (35.97 ton/ha) was recorded from T1 treatment, while the lowest was recorded from T0 (control) treatment. In case of combined effect S3T1 produced the maximum average fruits per plant (19.45), weight of individual fruit (177.91 gm) and the highest yield (47.73 t/ha) while the lowest were (10.47, 132.40gm and 19.16 ton/ha) recorded from S1T0treatment combination respectively. The highest net income (730827 tk/ha) and benefit cost ratio (2.58) was noted from S3T1 treatment. It may therefore be concluded that the 25 days old seedling and removal of all branches up to 40 cm height showed more economical than rest of the combinations in cultivation of cucumber.