This study was performed to screen out the various species of 'Cucurbitaceae' family, musk melon (Kalash and Durga), bottle gourd (Crystal Long and Nuefield) and squash (Green Round, and Squash Malika) against the salt stress. All genotypes were treated with five different levels of NaCl (T0 = control, T1 = 1.5 dS m -1 , T2 = 3.0 dS m -1 , T3 = 4.5 dS m -1 and T4 = 6.0 dS m -1 ) and half strength of Hoagland's nutrients solution as the base nutrient solution. Results showed that the bottle gourd varieties "Nuefield" and "Crystal Long" performed best by maintaining the highest germination (93.2% and 85.6%), number of leaves per plant (4.5 and 5.7), shoot length (16.84 cm and 16.14 cm), root length (13.48 cm and 13.00 cm), plant fresh weight (942.2 g and 918.6 g), plant dry weight (118.4 g and 107.5 g), leaf area (171.2 cm 2 and 169.1 cm 2 ), chlorophyll content (3.5 μg/cm -2 and 3.4 μg/cm -2 ) with low chloride (1.57 ppm and 1.59 ppm) and sodium content (0.47 HIGHLIGHTS• Three species of Cucurbitaceae family are evaluated against the salt stress.• Higher levels of salinity have more adverse effects on the growth of cucurbits.• The varieties of bottle gourd performed well against the salt stress.