Influence of Biostimulants and Micronutrients as Foliar Spray on Growth, Yield and Quality of Chow chow (Sechium edule (Jacq) Swartz)

Micronutrient deficiency is quite prevalent in the mid hills of Tamil Nadu and it greatly influences the yield of numerous horticultural crops like chow chow. Therefore, the present investigation was carried out to study the effect of foliar application of bio stimulants viz. panchakaviya (3%), humic acid (2%), and micronutrients on yield of chow chow. The bio stimulants and micronutrients were sprayed on the vines at 15 day intervals on 60, 75, 90, 105, 120, 135 and 150th day after planting. The results revealed that the foliar application of panchakaviya (3%) recorded maximum fruit length (10.82 cm), fruit diameter (11.70 cm), number of fruits per vine (19.08), fruit weight (335 g), yield per vine (6.43 kg) and yield per hectare (26.60 t). Among the micronutrient treatments, the foliar spray of ZnSO4 0.5% + FeSO4 0.5% + Mg SO4 0.5%+ Boric acid 0.3%+Cu SO4 0.1%+Mo 0.02% recorded the highest values for number of fruits (20.18/ vine), fruit length (12.00 cm), fruit diameter (12.75 cm), fruit weight (363.50 g), yield per vine (7.27 kg) and yield per hectare (33.45 t). The interaction effects proved that the combined spray of panchakaviya (3%) and micronutrients ZnSO4 0.5% + Fe SO4 0.5% + Mg SO4 0.5%+ Boric acid 0.3%+Cu SO4 0.1%+Mo 0.02% recorded the highest values for number of fruits (21.35 /vine), fruit length (12.00 cm), fruit diameter (13.00 cm), fruit weight (367.00 g), yield per vine (7.58 kg) and yield per hectare (35.45 t). The application of panchakaviya (3%) and micronutrients on 60, 75, 90, 105, 120, 135 and 150th day after planting increased the yield and farmers were convinced with this technology for getting higher yield.