Influence of Plant Growth Regulators (PGRs) and Planting Method on Growth and Yield in Oil Pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo var. styriaca)

The effect of plant growth regulators IBA (indole butyric acid), GA3 (gibberellin) and ethylene (as ethephon) in two methods of planting was investigated (each method was considered as a separate experiment) on morphological characters and yield of medicinal pumpkin. The experiments were carried out in a factorial trial based on completely randomized block design, with four replicates. The treatments were combined with priming and spraying with the above PGRs. The first seed priming with control (water), IBA 100 ppm, GA3 25 ppm and ethephon 200 ppm, and when seedling developed to 4 leaf stage sprayed there with control (water), IBA 100 ppm, GA3 25 ppm and ethephon 200 ppm for three times. In both planting methods, there were all of these treatments. The result showed that PGRs and planting method had significant effects on vegetative, flowering and yield characteristics including: leaf area %DM plant, number of male and female flowers per plant, number of fruit/plant, fruits fresh weight, seeds length and width, number of seed per fruit, seed yield, % seeds oil and oil yield. Hence spraying with GA3 25 ppm in four leaf stage at trellis method could be a suitable treatment for enhancing growth and yield of medicinal pumpkin.