Morphological and Nutritional Responses of Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata) to Pruning at Different Node Stages

Abstract

In recent years, the practice of pruning has evolved into a complex approach for improving the growth, structure, and yield of crops. Cucurbitaceous plants have a vining habit, grow quickly, and branch widely, which are characteristics of their natural growth patterns. With the following concept, the current investigation was conducted at the Instructional cum Research Farm, Department of Horticulture, Biswanath College of Agriculture, Assam Agricultural University, Biswanath Chariali. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the morphological, nutritional and yield parameters as influenced by pruning. The treatments were: T1(Pruning of the primary vine at 10thnodestage), T2(Pruning oftheprimaryvineat12thnodestage), T3(Pruning of the secondary vine at 6th node stage), T4(Pruning of the secondary vine at 8th node stage), T5(Removal of all tertiary vines), T6(control without pruning). The study recorded the highest vine length (438.89 cm) and inter-nodal length (17.71 cm) of primary vine at harvest was found under T3whileT2 recorded the highest number of secondary vines (8.90) at harvest. The highest petiole length (27.34 cm) was recorded by T2 at harvest. With respect to nutritional characters, pruning showed significant changes, such as the highest vitamin A (2218.92 IU) and ascorbic acid (7.96 mg/100g) was recorded by T1 while T2 recorded highest total phenol content (86.35 mg/GAE/100gFW), in terms of total soluble solids content, T5 recorded the highest (5.97 ºBrix) value. The overall study revealed that pruning not only helped in enhancing overall morphological parameters but also had a significant effect on nutritional parameters. As pruning can be seen to enhance these parameters it can be suggested to the farmers of Assam to adopt it as a cultural practice.