Field Crop 2018, Vol.1, No.1, 1-4
1
Research Report Open Access
Performance of Summer Squash (
Cucurbita pepo
L.) under Protected Conditions
in Terai Region of Uttrakhand
B.K. Pandey, S.K. Maurya , La Lalit Bhatt, Pooja, D.S. Chauhan
Department of Vegetable Science, College of Agriculture, GBPUAT, Pantnagar 263 145 (U.S. Nagar), Uttarakhand, India
Corresponding author email
Field Crop, 2018, Vol.1, No.1 doi
Received: 08 Jun., 2018
Accepted: 02 Jul., 2018
Published: 20 Jul., 2018
Copyright © 2018
Pandey et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Pandey B.K., Maurya S.K., Bhatt L.L., Pooja, and Chauhan D.S., 2018, Performance of summer squash (
Cucurbita pepo
L.) under protected conditions in
Terai Region of Uttrakhand, Field Crop, 1(1): 1-4 (doi
Abstract
An experiment was conducted in factorial randomized block design with three replications involving ten varieties of
summer squash at the Vegetable Research Centre, Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar,
Uttarakhand during rabi season of 2016-17. All varieties showed a wide range of variation for most of the characters studied under
investigation. The varieties namely Cora (1033 q), Sunny House (882 q) and Catherina (828 q) performed best, however, Long Green
was the least yielder genotype with 150 q/ha under polyhouse. In open growing condition, the genotypes Champion (517 q),
Cheongma Zucchini (478 q), and Sunny House (399 q) were the top performers and superior than the check variety Cora (263 q),
however, ASV-3098 was the least yielder genotype with 118 q/ha fruit yield. The high fruit yield recorded with the genotypes has
been directly attributed to increased number of fruits per plant. The economic analysis of summer squash was carried out for three
months and the best benefit cost ratio obtained was 2.89 in Champion under open growing condition with plastic mulch and 2.03 in
Cora under naturally ventilated polyhouse. Therefore, we recommend such varieties that can be grown for off-season cultivation at
the farmer’s field in terai region of Uttarakhand.
Keywords
Squash; Rabi season; Vegetables; Zucchini
Background
Summer squash (
Cucurbita pepo
L., 2n=2x=40), an economically important member of the gourd family,
Cucurbitaceae. Summer squash is a warm season, New World vegetable crop, well adapted to temperate and
sub-tropical region. It is a quick growing and early yielding cucurbit which performs well in cool and moist weather
conditions and require approximately 16-27ºC temperature for its normal growth and development. Plant produce
stem with greatly shortened internodes in close succession. It is a compact bushy plant with reduced size tendrils.
Summer squash is also known as bush squash, vegetable marrow, Vilayati Kaddu/Chappan Kaddu/Safed Kaddu
(Thamburaj and Singh, 2001). Summer squash ranks high in economic importance among vegetable crops. In the
hills of Northern India, its cultivation is mostly confined to mid hills where summers are mild, the sowing season
starts from March-April and the crop matures in May-June, whereas in lower hills where summers are a bit harsh
and the crop is attacked severely by fruit fly and other insect pest and diseases. Therefore, this problem can be
coped up by adopting protected cultivation and using short duration vegetable crops like cucurbits for the
horticultural production. Inspite of favorable climatic condition in Uttarakhand, early growing season encounters
with low temperature, frost etc. and later on unexpected drought, rainfed conditions and biotic stresses are some of
the major constraints, which restrict vegetable grower to cultivate summer squash commercially in Uttarakhand
by adversely affecting crop growth and yield.
Though state has a wide range of diverse agro climatic conditions but vegetable cultivation practices have
generally been restricted to limited region and seasonal needs and the lack of awareness about technological
advancement like protected cultivation and use of poor quality of planting material even in polyhouse are also
responsible for low productivity of state as compared to national level (Singh et al., 2010). A number of improved
cultivars have been recently developed in the country in this crop but no effort has been made so far to evaluate them
for their suitability of growing under different protected conditions in
Tarai
region of Uttarakhand. In this context,
