No abstract

Cucumber crop was evaluated for the influence of seedling age on its production during two consecutive years of 2011 and 2012 on experimental area of National Agricultural Research Center (NARC), Islamabad, Pakistan. Nursery of cucumber was raised in polythene tubes under protected structures (walk-in tunnels). Seedling transplantation of three different ages viz., 30, 45 and 60 days were compared with direct seeding in the open field. Seedling transplantation produced fruits earlier (22 days), increased availability period (41 days) as compared to direct seeded crop. Transplantation of 45 and 60 days old seedlings produced higher fruits yield of cucumber with higher gross return and gross margin. The results revealed that transplantation of 45 to 60 days old seedlings was suitable for achieving fruits earlier and profitable cucumber production technology.

A study was conducted at the research field of Horticultural Research Institute, National Research Center (NARC), Islamabad, Pakistan during two consecutive years of 2011 and 2012 to compare the performance of seedlings raised in polythene bags with traditional direct seeding in respect of early harvesting and profitability. Seedlings of three different ages (40, 50 and 60 days old) of vegetable marrow were compared with traditional direct seeded crop. Transplanted seedlings of vegetable marrow produced fruits 36-38 days earlier and availability period of 34-38 days longer than direct seeded crop. Similarly, higher fruit plant-1, fruit weight plant-1 and fruit yield ha-1 were obtained from seedling treatments. Averaged over years, 50-69% increase in yield and 64-100% increase in profit were recorded in seedling treatments than direct seeded crop. Among seedling ages, 60 days old seedlings were the best performer. The overall results of two years study revealed that seedling transplantation was superior to traditional direct seeded practice of growing vegetable marrow and among those 60 days old seedlings was the best in respect of yield components, fruit yield and profit.SAARC J. Agri., 13(1): 215-222 (2015)