PUNJAB NIKHAR: A NEW VARIETY OF SPONGE GOURD

摘要

Punjab Nikhar, a new variety of sponge gourd, gives an average fruit yield of 82 q/acre. This early bearing and high yielding variety will not only enhance the productivity, but also offer an opportunity to the farmers to fetch early market prices.Punjab Nikhar is a new variety of sponge gourd. Its vines are medium long with intermediate internodal length. Leaves are medium in size and green. Fruit is slender, smooth, tender, long, light green and takes 43 days from transplanting to first picking.Its average fruit yield is 82q/acre. This newly released variety is 14 days early than PSG-9 and gives 28 per cent higher yield. Its colour is light green that gives attractive and fresh look after harvesting. This early bearing and high yielding variety will not only enhance the productivity, but also offer an opportunity to the farmers to fetch early market prices. It requires warm and humid conditions for fast growth and fruit development, and is cultivated during spring-summer and rainy seasons inPunjab by sowing from mid-February to March and mid-May to July, respectively. For direct sowing in the field, use about 2.0 kg seed/acre at 3 m x 60 cm spacing on both the sides of the beds. The beds are prepared after application of 30 kg of urea, 125kg of single super phosphate and 35 kg of muriate of potash per acre. Other two doses of urea 30 kg each are applied one and two months after sowing or transplanting, respectively. First irrigation should be given just after seed sowing or transplanting.Later on, irrigations should be plannedaccording to the season and the type of soil. However, rainy season crop flourishes with limited irrigations. It flowers continuously and sets fruit, when already grown fruit is harvested at regular intervals of 3-4 days. The best time for raising the seed crop is February-March, since harvesting and extraction of seed is convenient in the dry spell. The crop should be isolated 1,000 metres away from other varieties of sponge gourd and the undesirable or off-type plants are removed before flowering, during flowering, fruiting and maturity stages. Physiologically mature should be harvested for seed. Seeds are extracted when fruit is dry and seeds rattle inside the shell. After cleaning, dry seed is packed and stored under low temperature and low humidity conditions.