Influence of integrated nutrient management in ridge gourd (Luffa acutangula (Roxb.) L. )

As the availability of land is decreasing day by day, application of chemical fertilizers has become necessary to meet the demand for food grains. So to sustain soil health and benign environment, balanced application of organic and inorganic fertilizers is essential. Much research has been conducted on the use of inorganic fertilizers in ridge gourd to increase the production and productivity of the crop. Ridge gourd is an important cucurbitaceous vegetable crop, widely grown all over the Andhra Pradesh. In vine crops like ridge gourd the integrated use of organic and inorganic fertilizers, offer good opportunity to increase the yield and quality parameters. Hence, an attempt has been made to study the influence of integrated nutrient management on yield and quality characters of ridge gourd. The present investigation was carried out at Agricultural Research Institute, Rajendranagar, and Hyderabad during Kharif season of 2005 and 2006. The soil of the experimental plot was clay loam with pH of 8.0, organic carbon content 0.48% and available N, P2O5 and K2O were 267, 42.5 and 335 kg/ha respectively. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with three replications and 13 treatments. The details of treatment schedules areT1 (Recommended dose of N, P 2 O 5 & K 2 O (100-5050 kg/ha); T2 – vermicompost (VC) @ 5.8t/ha; T3 FYM @ 20 t/ha; T4 - poultry manure (PM) @ 5.0 t/ha; T5 – 50% FYM + 50% of Recommended dose of Nitrogenous fertilizer (RNF); T6 – 50% VC + 50% RNF; T7 – 50% PM +50% of RNF ; T8 – 25% of FYM + 75% of RNF; T9 – 25% of VC + 75% of RNF ; T10 - 25% of PM + 75% of RNF; T11 – 75% of FYM + 25% of RNF ; T12 - 75% of VC + 25% of RNF ; T13 – 75% of PM + 25% of RNF. The seeds of ridge gourd variety Pusa Nasdar were sown at a spacing of 2.5 m x 0.75m after the through incorporation of organic manures in the soil. Recommended agronomic practices and plant protection measures were taken up. Five randomly selected plants were taken for recording the biometrical characters like vine length, days to 50% flowering, days to picking, fruit characters and yield. The data was analyzed by the method advocated by Panse and Sukhatme (1978). The edible stages of ridge gourd fruits were used for the analysis of quality characters. The quality parameters like ascorbic acid, reducing sugars and total sugar content was recorded by following the procedure as suggested by Saini etal (2001). The soil nutrient status was analyzed before the application of treatments and after the harvesting of the crop. Significant variations among the treatments for the characters vine length, days to 50% flowering, fruit length, weight and yield were observed (Table 1). The integrated approach of nutrient application improved these characters when compared to sole application of recommended dose of fertilizer. Application of 75% of vermicompost + 25% of RNF recorded maximum vine length of 9.23m and was on par with that of 75% of FYM + 25% of RNF (8.57m). Regarding to earliness of the crop there is no significant difference when organic manures or RDF alone were applied. However the combination of 50% VC and 50% RNF showed earliness in flowering (47 days). When the % of RNF