Effect of Organic, Inorganic and Biofertilizer on Growth, Yield and Quality of Bottle Gourd (Lagenaria siceraria Mol.)

The present investigation was carried out at Research Farm, Department of Horticulture, Naini Agricultural Institute, SHUATS, Naini, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh during the Kharif- 2023 with a view to identify the effects of different combinations of organic and inorganic fertilizers and its role in growth, yield and quality of bottle gourd variety Sharada. The experiment was laid in Randomized block design with 13 treatments and 3 replications with different combination in RDF and application of organic manures and bio fertilizers. In this experiment we found that the treatment T9 (50% RDF + 50% Vermicompost + Azospirillum @ 1 Kg ha-1) was found to be best in the terms of growth parameters viz., vine length observed at 60 DAS (166.65 cm), number of branches per plant (5.63 branches), yield parameters like number of fruits per plant (17.41 fruits), fruit length (40.11 cm), fruit diameter (7.51 cm) and fruit weight (916.97 grams) along with better yield (79.84 q/ha) and quality TSS and Vitamin C content of bottle gourd. The highest net return was found in the T9 (50% RDF + 50% Vermicompost + Azospirillum @ 1 Kg ha-1) with Rs 1,81,473/ha) and the highest B:C ratio was found in the same with 2.32.