YIELD PERFORMANCE OF CUCUMBER ( Cucumis sativus) AS INFLUENCED BY SEEDLING AGE AND TRAINING

Abstract

An experiment was carried out 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. S 1 =15 days old seedling , S 2 = 20 days old seedling, S 3 = 25 days old seedling; and four levels of training i.e. T 0 =Control, T 1= Removal of all branches up to 40 cm height, T 2 = Removal of all branches up to 80 cm height and T 3 = Removal of all branches up to 120 cm height . ‘Baromashi’ (local variety) was used in this experiment. In case of seedling age, the maximum number of fruits per plant (17.18), individual fruit weight (174.33 g) and fruit yield (41.63 t/ha) was recorded from S 3 treatment, whereas the lowest was recorded from S 1 treatment. On the other hand, the maximum number of fruits per plant (15.93), individual fruit weight (160.87 g) and fruit yield (35.97 ton/ha) was recorded from T 1 treatment, while the lowest was recorded from T 0 (control) treatment. In case of combined effect S 3 T 1 produced the maximum number of fruits per plant (19.45), weight of individual fruit (177.91 g) and the highest yield (47.73 ton/ha), while the lowest were recorded from S 1 T 0 treatment combination respectively. The highest net income (73082 TK/ha) and benefit cost ratio (2.58) was noted from S 3 treatment. It may therefore be accomplished that the 25 days old seedling and removal of all branches up to 40 cm height showed more cost-effective than rest of the combinations in cultivation of cucumber.