Abstract:
Assessing the impact of technologies on yield and profitability of cultivation is an essential
step before dissemination of the technologies for wider adaptation. Investigations were
carried out at ICAR-Krishi Vigyan Kendra, CARD, Pathanamthitta, Kerala during
September- December period of 2014 and 2015 to evaluate the impact of irrigation,
fertigation and plastic mulching in bitter gourd variety Preethi. The experiment was
conducted in RBD factorial having 18 treatments and 3 replications. Effect of three levels
of irrigation (60%, 80% and100% ET) applied through drip, two levels of mulching (no
mulch and mulching with Silver- Black plastic mulch) and three levels of fertiliser (75%,
100% and 125% of NPK dose 210: 74: 225 kg ha-1) applied as fertigation using water
soluble fertilisers were studied. The results indicated that the highest irrigation and
fertigation levels (100% Ep and 125%NPK dose) along with plastic mulching produced
maximum values of fruit length, fruit girth, fruit weight, number of fruits/plant, number of
harvests and the marketable yield. Irrigation at 100%Ep and fertigation at 100% NPK dose
along with mulching with silver-black plastic mulch gave the highest BCR of 2.32 due to
the increase in unmarketable yield with the increase in fertiliser dose
