The density of herbaceous crops creates a suitable environment to produce pathogens in the soil that intensify the attack of pathogens traditionally controlled by disinfectant, which are mostly prohibited and unlisted because of their toxicity. Grafting is an alternative technique to enhance abiotic stress tolerance and reduce root diseases due to soil-borne pathogens, thus enhancing crop production. This research study was conducted during the crop season of 2017 and 2018 in order to investigate the interactive effect of different grafting techniques of hybrid scion onto local rootstocks on plants survival, plant phenological growth, fruit yield and fruit quality under a controlled environment. The hybrid cucumber was also planted self-rooted. The cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) cv. Kalaam F1, Syngenta was grafted onto four local cucurbitaceous rootstocks; ridge gourd (Luffa operculate Cogn.), bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.), pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo L.), bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl.) using splice grafting, tongue approach, single cotyledon and hole insertion grafting techniques and self-rooted hybrid cucumber under greenhouse conditions. The experimental results indicated that all local cucurbitaceous rootstocks showed a high compatibility with hybrid cucumber scion in the splice grafting method compared to other grafting and non-grafted methods. Lagenaria siceraria rootstocks were found highly compatible with cucumber cv Kalaam scion which gave significantly maximum plant survival rates (95%) due to high sap contents, high SPAD value, better vegetative growth and maximum fruit yield when compared with other rootstocks by employing the splice grafting method followed by tongue approach, single cotyledon and hole insertion grafting while the fruit quality of all rootstocks was observed to be similar. The non-grafted cucumber cv. Kalaam F1 showed significant results of plant vegetative growth, fruit development and fruit quality and encountered grafting methods while the lowest result were associated with the hole insertion grafting method in all scion/rootstock combinations. The grafted plants have no significant effect on cucumber fruit dry matter and fruit quality while the fruit mineral compositions (N, P, K, Ca and Mg) were higher among grafted and non-grafted plant fruits. The results indicate that grafting hybrid cucumber onto four local cucurbitaceous rootstocks influenced growth, yield and fruit quality. Grafting can be alternative and control measure for soil-borne disease and to enhance cucumber production.

The experiment was conducted to observe the regeneration potential and also to establish a suitable in vitro plantlet regeneration protocol from mature seed derived embryogenic calli of four indica rice varieties viz BRRI dhan28, BRRI dhan29, BRRI dhan47 and Binadhan-7 after partial desiccation treatment. Different concentrations and combinations of growth regulators were used in MS medium to observe the callus induction ability using mature embryo as explants. The percentage of callus induction frequency was highest (86.00) in BRRI dhan47 and the lowest (56.50) in Binadhan-7 Among the culture media the performance of MS +500 mgl -1 L-Proline + 2.0 mglBAP was better than any other media for callus induction frequency (%), rapid callusing, size of the callus (mm), texture of callus and color of callus. Among the four varieties, shoot regeneration was highest in BRRI dhan29 (84.33%) which required minimum (14.80) days to and the lowest was in Binadhan-7 (39.67%) which required maximum (15.47) days. Among the treatments, the highest (65.75%) shoot regeneration was observed with MS + 6.0 mgl -1 Kn + 0.5 mgl -1 NAA which required minimum days (13.75) to develop green bud formation and the lowest shoot regeneration (56.50) was observed with MS + 2.0 mgl -1 Kn + .05 mgl -1 NAA. BRRI dhan29 produced more number of shoots (4.67) per callus while Binadhan-7 showed minimum number of shoots (2.87) per callus. The highest number of shoot producing roots (3.66) was observed in BRRI dhan29 which showed maximum number of root per plant and the lowest (3.11) in Binadhan-7. Among the three treatments MS + 0.6 mgl -1 IBA showed highest percentage 86.67 of root followed by MS+ 0.6 mgl IBA. The establishment rate of the plantlet in the pot was the highest (67.67%) in BRRI dhan29 and Binadhan-7 showed lowest establishment rate (51.22%) in pot.

Water content plays a crucial role in seed development, particularly at the seed sowing stage, and it ensures good seed germination. A water seed drill was designed and developed to provide an optimum quantity of water that is required for the soil in the same furrow, right after seed placement. This soil moistening method not only improves the moisture level in the field, but it also saves a large amount of water by applying the needed water quantity in the line of sowing after seed placement. The water seed drill consisted of a wheat seed drill, a water application system, and a tank with 400 L capacity. The water seed drill yielded a 48% higher germination count than when wheat is planted through a conventional method. The data recorded also showed that the water seed drill raised the soil moisture to 24% from the existing 13% soil moisture content. The total operational cost of the water seed drill was 2.57-fold greater than the conventional seed drill, but the output cost of the water seed drill was 2.15 times (49,000 Rs/ha) more than that of the conventional seed drill.

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Abstract:The ringed shoots of litchi were treated with different concentrations of IBA for 2-5 seconds. According to the experimental results, maximum number of roots/plant (9.94), root length (10.94 cm), number of leaves/plants (10.55) and percent plants survival (77.77%) were recorded in layers treated with 2500 PPM of IBA, while minimum number of roots/plants (5.33), root length (5.49 cm), number of leaves/plants (6.11) and percent plants survival (33.33) were recorded in control treatment. Likewise layers treated with 2500 ppm of IBA rooted earlier (31.33 days) than control treatment (36 days).