Standardization of date of sowing and covering material under low tunnels for early harvest of cucurbits

Abstract

High aridity index, extremes of temperature, low and variable precipitation, high wind velocity and dust storm, high soil pH, limited availability of ground water and saline ground irrigation water are the characteristics of hot arid zone. Cultivation of vegetable crops in open condition under such harsh climatic conditions becomes very difficult and results into low, poor quality production and economic losses to the farmers. Hence, there is a great need for a new and effective technology which can improve the productivity, profitability, and sustainability. One such technology is the low cost protected cultivation viz. low tunnels which offer an advantage of early and off-season production of vegetable crops in arid region and gaining popularity among the farmers however, there is a need to identify low tunnel responsive varieties and standardize tunnel technology for particular crop along with use of non-woven cloth for tunnel preparation. Hence, an experiment on low tunnel cultivation of cucurbits was taken up to standardize the date of sowing and covering material. Long melon var. ‘Thar Sheetal’was sown on four different date of sowing i.e. December 10, December 20, December 30 and January 10, 2018-19. Similarly, water melon was sown on three different dates of sowing. Two types of covering material i.e. biodegradable plastic sheet of 25 micron and non-woven cloth (25 gsm) was used. The covering material was removed during second week of February after gradual hardening of the plants. Under different dates of sowing and covering material long melon and water melon took 59-66 and 83-91 days, respectively after sowing for first harvest at marketable stage under low tunnel. The sowing on second date of sowing with polythene covering recorded the highest yield and fruiting duration followed by the sowing on same date with non-woven cloth covering. An advancement of 30-45 days was recorded with first two dates of sowing as compared to normal season which fetches higher price in the market.