STUDIES ON THE PRODUCTIVITY OF SQUASH (Cucurbita pepo L.) PLANTS UNDER SOME NEW AGRICULTURE TECHNIQUES

Abstract

The experiments were carried out in open field and under low plastic tunnel at Kaha Research Station, Horticulture Research Institute (HRI), Agricultural Research Center (ARC), Ministry of Agriculture, Giza Governorate, Egypt during two successive growing seasons of 2015-2016 and 2016-2017. Squash hybrids 'transplants' were grafted onto three rootstocks and self-grafted squash hybrid transplants were used as control to evaluate the effect of grafting on productivity and quality of squash in winter season. The important obtained results could be summarized as follows: 1. Effect of cultivation systems: • The grafting of cucurbita pepo L. under low plastic tunnel gained the highest values of plant height, number of leaves, leaf area, leaves dry weight and RWC compare to the grafting in open field in the both seasons. • Dry weight of 100g fresh fruits, number of marketable fruits/ plant, weight of marketable fruits/ plant, number of female flowers/ plant, number of male flowers/ plant and sex expression Obtained a noticeable superiority of planting all treatments under the tunnel compared to planting them under the open field conditions in the both seasons, but there is no significant difference between the two sowing systems for average fruit weight, number of unmarketable fruits/ plant and weight of unmarketable fruits/ plant in the both seasons. • There was no significant difference between the two sowing systems on TSS %, ascorbic acid in squash fruits in the both seasons and total carbohydrates in first season, but in second season planting under low plastic tunnel outperformed. • The highest values of total chlorophyll, proline, total free amino acids, N%, P%, and K% in the both seasons. In addition, the highest values of phenols and Ca% in first season were obtained