Performance of Parthenocarpic Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) Under Varying Mulch and Plant Geometry

Various plastic mulches are widely accessible on the market; however, Indian farmers are unaware of their ef icacy at varying spacings under protected conditions.In order to discover the effect of mulch and spacing on parthenocarpy cucumber under protected conditions, research was undertaken at Vegetable Research Farm during the rainy season of the year 2021-22 in Split Plot Design comprising ive levels of mulches, i.e. (M ) double shade plastic mulch, (M ) black polyethylene mulch, (M ) transparent plastic 1 2 3 mulch, (M ) paper mulch and (M ) no mulch and three plant-to-plant spacing's i.e. (S ) 30, (S ) 45 and (S ) 60 cm.(M ) Double shade 4 5 1 2 3 1 plastic mulch recorded minimum node at which irst lower appears, days to initiation of irst lowering, days to 50% lowering, days to irst picking and inter-nodal length whereas the maximum duration of lowering, fruit length, fruit weight and fruit yield per plant.However, the number of lowers/plant and number of fruits per plant were recorded signi icantly higher under (M ) black 2 polyethylene mulch.Highest bene it: cost ratio was found under (M ) paper mulch.Among different spacings, 70 30 cm recorded 4 2 statistically maximum number of lowers per plant, fruit length, fruit yield per plant, fruit yield in Kg per m , minimum days to irst picking and maximum bene it: cost ratio.The interaction of mulch and spacing was non-signi icant for all the parameters except for total soluble solids and bene it: cost ratio.Although (M ) paper mulch exhibited maximum bene it: cost ratio but cucumber crop 4 performed best under the (M ) double shade plastic mulch followed by (M ) black polyethylene mulch.The main challenge to growing 1 2the parthenocarpic cucumber in polyhouse was higher plant densities which may restrict air movement and promote humid conditions favorable for disease development and prevent effective fungicide application.Many researchers studied the effect of spacing on cucumber production but the reports are contradictory to each other in terms of adopting closer or wider spacing.