Seed Crop of Bitter Gourd as Influenced by Soil Application of Phosphorus and Micronutrient Spray

Abstract

An experiment was conducted on seed production and seed quality aspects of bitter gourd. The experiment comprising of five levels of phosphorus (0, 25. 50, 75 and 100 Kg P20 5/ha) and three levels of Micronutrients (water spray as control, Solubor as a source of Boron and Agromin as a source of Boron+Zinc+Molybdenum), was laid out in factorial randomized block design with three replications. Phosphorus (different levels) and micronutrients (boron alone and mixture of boron, zinc and molybdenum) had good influence on vine length, days to female flowering, days to ripe fruits harvest, number of fruits per plant, number of seeds per plant, seed yield per hectare, 100 seed weight, percent germination, seedling length and seed vigour index. Application of phosphorus @ 75 Kg P20 5/ha and Agromin @ 2 ml/1 was resulted maximum seed yield and improved most of the seed quality parameters of bitter gourd. Seed production of bitter gourd may be a viable economic option for the farmers' of this locality.