GROWTH AND YIELD OF CUCUMBER (Cucumis sativus) INFLUENCED BY STEM PRUNING AND FOLIAR APPLICATION OF ZINC

Abstract

An experiment was conducted during the period of April to June 2016 at Horticulture farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207, Bangladesh to evaluate the effect of stem pruning and foliar application of Zn on growth and yield of cucumber. The experiment was laid out in the Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. Treatment as four levels of zinc application i.e. Z 0 =No spray, Z 1 = 20 mg/l, Z 2 = 30 mg/l, Z 3 = 50 mg/l; and three levels of stem pruning i.e. P 0 = No pruning, P 1 = Pruning to three primary branches, P 2 = Pruning to five primary branches which in combination made 12 treatment combination. Application of zinc resulted the highest vine length, number of leaves, number of fruits, individual fruit weight, fruit yield (36.44 t ha -1 ) from Z 2 treatment. In case of pruning the highest vine length, number of leaves, number of fruits, individual fruit weight, fruit yield ((37.16 t ha treatment. The combined effect of P 1 Z 2 -1 ) from P 1 gave the best result for all vegetative and reproductive growth and development i.e. vine length (179.03cm), total number of fruits (20.49) and fruit yield (40.66 t ha -1 ). So the combination of P 1 Z 2 found better to cultivate cucumber.