Yield Performance and Profitability of Bitter Gourd Cultivation as Influenced by Drip Irrigation, Fertigation and Plastic Mulching

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