Abstract

                                he present study aimed to identify suitable training system forbitter gourd cultivation,The experiment was conducted at CollegeOrchard, Horticultural College and Research Institute, Tamil NaduAgricultural University, Coimbatore. Among the different trainingsystems evaluated, pandal system recorded the highest vinelength (481.81 cm), followed by the bamboo training system(476.76cm). The treatment using fish net training system showedthe highest internodal length (6.34 cm). Pandal training systemexhibited the highest number of branches (10.04). Earliness interms of days for the appearance of male and female flowers wasobserved in pandal training system (41.33 and 53.16 daysrespectively). Days to 50% flowering was also found earlier in thepandal system (64.23 days). The narrow sex ratio (5.86) wasobserved in the bamboo pole support system tied with gunnythread. The pandal system recorded the highest number of fruitsper vine (78.66) and gunny thread training system recorded thelowest number of fruits (34.83). The highest fruit length of 21.35Madras Agric.J., 2021; doi: 10.29321/MAJ.10.000291(online first)cm and fruit diameter of 3.57 cm wererecorded inthe pandaltraining system. The maximum fruit weight was recorded in thepandal system (74.12 g fruit-1) and the minimum fruit weight wasobserved (52.74g fruit-1) in the fish net system. Pandal trainingsystem exhibited the highest yield plant-1 (5.79 kg plant-1), yieldplot-1 (132.65 kg) and yield hectare-1 (119.16 q ha-1) while thelowest values were recorded under gunny thread system ofcultivation. Among the different training systemspandal/conventional training system is more economical with abenefit-cost ratio of 2.51 followed by bamboo system, fish netsystem and bamboo poles support system tied with gunny thread.

Key words : Bittergourd;Pandal training system; Bamboo training system; Fish net training system; Gunny thread training system