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Thirty two cucumber genotypes were collected from different states of India and were evaluated for yield and quality characters at Bhubaneswar, Odisha during Rabi season of 2019. The relationships between fruit yield and yield components in cucumber genotypes were investigated and correlation  studies  revealed  that  yield  per  plant had  positive  and  significant  association  with vine length, number of fruits per plant, fruit length, fruit diameter and average fruit weight, while significant negative  correlations were  observed with  node at which first female flower appears, number of days to first female flower production, days to  first harvest and severity of downy mildew percentage both at phenotypic and genotypic levels.  Path  coefficient  analysis  revealed  that  fruit diameter had  maximum positive  direct  effect  on  yield per plant followed  by fruit length, number of fruits per plant, days to first harvest, average fruit weight while, negative direct effect of number of days to first female flower production and severity of downy mildew percentage was observed on yield per plant. Future breeding should focus on selecting the characters having direct effects to improve yield per plant.

The experiment was conducted taking Fifteen genotypes of sweet potato were evaluated in RBD with three replications during kharif season of 2019 & 2020 at in the K.V.K Dhenkanal District ,Odisha. Among the characters studied, different high PCV and GCV were observed for characters like vine length, vine internodal length, number of branches per plant, number of leaves per plant, total leaf area, number of roots per plant, root yield per plant, β-carotene content, starch content, total sugars, reducing sugars, non reducing sugars and total root yield per hectare content indicating high variability available in the germplasm for these characters for further improvement. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance as per cent of mean was observed for characters vine length, vine internodal length, number of branches per plant, length of leaf lobe, number of leaves per plant, total leaf area, root girth, root yield per plant, β-carotene content, starch content, total sugars, reducing sugars, non reducing sugars and total root yield per hectare indicated that these characters were least influenced by the environmental effects, and these characters were governed by additive genes and selection will be rewarding for improvement of such traits. The total root yield per hectare (t/ha) had significant positive correlation with traits like number of branches per plant, number of roots per plant, root girth, root yield per plant and β-carotene content suggesting the importance of these traits in selection for yield and can be identified as yield attributing characters for the genetic improvement of yield in sweet potato. The total root yield per hectare (t/ha) was result of direct effect of number of branches per plant, number of roots per plant, root length, root yield per plant, starch content and reducing sugars. The high direct effect of these traits appeared to be the main factor for their strong association with total root yield per hectare. Analysis for divergence using D2 statistic revealed highly significant differences for different traits, grouping the 15 genotypes into 6 clusters. Cluster II had the maximum number of genotypes (8) followed by cluster I (7). Maximum inter cluster distance was observed between clusters III and VI while the intra cluster distance was maximum in cluster II and VI. Highest percent contribution to divergence came from β-carotene content, starch content, total sugar, total leaf area, root dry matter content, number of leaves per plant, root yield per plant, petiole length, root girth, vine length and reducing sugar suggested that selection of one or two elite genotypes from divergent (II & VI) and (III & VI) clusters based on the above characters and crossing would result in more heterosis and novel hybrid.

The present investigation was carried out at Department of Vegetable Science, OUAT, Bhubaneswar during 2019-2021. Five to six months old stored spine gourd seeds were exposed to various physical (T1: control, T2: 48 hours soaking in water, T3: hot water treatment for 20 minutes + 48 hourssoaking in water, T4: scarification by sand paper + 48 hours soaking in water, T5: removal of seed coat + 48 hours soaking in water) and chemical (C1: GA3 100 ppm, C2: GA3 200 ppm, C3: KNO3 1%, C4: KNO3 2%, C5: Thiourea 1%, C6: Thiourea 2% & C7: Control) treatments. The experiment was laid out in factorial CRD design with 35 treatment combinations replicated twice. The seeds were sown in plastic trays containing cocopeat media. The effect of these treatments on percentage of germination, length of seedling, seedling dry weight, seedling vigour index- I and II were studied. It was concluded that among the physical treatments, T5 (removal of seed coat + 48 hours soaking in water), among the chemical treatments, C1 (GA3 100 ppm) and between the interactions, T5C1 recorded highest germination percentage, seedling length, seedling dry weight, vigour index- I and vigour index – II. The lowest values were recorded in control. From the experimental results.it was observed that seed coat removed seeds soaked for 48 hours in water followed by treatment with GA3 100 ppm recorded highest germination percentage and seedling vigour in spine gourd.

The experiment was conducted at Department of Vegetable Science, OUAT, Bhubaneswar from 2019-2021. Stored spine gourd seeds of six months old were used in this experiment. The seeds were first given various physical treatments (T1: control, T2: 48 hours soaking in  water, T3: hot water treatment for 20 minutes + 48 hours soaking in water, T4: scarification by sand paper + 48 hours soaking in water, T5: removal of seed coat + 48 hours soaking in water) followed by chemical treatments (C1: GA3 100 ppm, C2: GA3 200 ppm, C3: KNO3 1%, C4: KNO3 2%, C5: Thiourea 1%,  C6: Thiourea 2% & C7: control). The experiment was laid out in factorial CRD design with 35 treatment combinations replicated twice. The seeds were sown in plastic trays containing coco peat media. The effect of these treatments on number of days taken for initial germination, length of shoot, root, number of roots per seedling and percentage of seedling establishment in main field were recorded. From the data recorded, it was observed that among the physical treatments, T5 (removal of seed coat + 48 hours soaking in water), among the chemical treatments, C1 (GA3 100 ppm) and between the interactions, T5C1 (removal of seed coat + 48 hours soaking in water + GA3 100 ppm) took minimum number of days for initial germination with highest shoot and root length, maximum number of roots per seedling and highest establishment percentage in field. The lowest values were recorded in case of control. So, it can be concluded that removal of seed coat followed by 48 hour soaking in water and GA3 100 ppm treatment resulted early germination with desirable seedling traits and highest establishment percent in main field.