Organic Cultivation of Ridge Gourd (Luffa acutangula Roxb.)

Abstract

An investigation was carried out during Kharif 2016 to study the performance of ridge gourd as influenced by organic inputs at Experimental farm, Department of Horticulture, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design (RBD) with three replications comprising seven treatments. Different organic manures such as compost, vermicompost and enriched compost were applied in two different doses i.e.2.5 t ha-1 & 5 t ha-1 along with rock phosphate and biofertilizer consortium. One of the treatments consisted of the recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF) which is conventional treatment. Growth and yield attributing characters such as the highest number of fruits per vine (19.92), yield (1.95 kg vine-1), fruit length (19.79 cm), average fruit weight (97.86 g), vine length (6.02 m) were recorded in conventional treatment (T1). Whereas the highest fruit girth (12.78 cm) was recorded in rock phosphate + biofertilizer consortium + vermicompost at the rate of (@) 5 t ha-1 (T5). The least days for male flower appearance (35.50 days) was found in rock phosphate + biofertilizer consortium + compost @ 5 t ha-1  (T3) and for female flower appearance (37.28 days) was in enriched compost @ 5 t ha-1 (T7).Treatments consisted of the organic source of nutrients recorded better performance in quality parameters as compare to the conventional treatment. The highest ash content (7.62 %), total sugar (5.43 %), reducing sugar (4.02 %) were recorded in enriched compost @ 5 t ha-1 (T7) while the highest ascorbic acid content  (4.51 mg 100g-1) was found in enriched compost @ 2.5 t ha-1 (T6). Regarding soil parameters the highest organic carbon (1.48 %), available P (68.91 kg ha-1), available K (132.41 kg ha-1) were found in enriched compost @ 5 t ha-1 (T7). The highest available N was recorded in rock phosphate + biofertilizer consortium + vermicompost @ 5 t ha-1(T5). Keeping all in view T5 (rock phosphate + biofertilizer consortium + vermicompost @ 5 t ha-1) can be recommended as eco-friendly and adopted in field condition to reap good sustainable yield.