Alleviation effects of brassinolides on growth and yield of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.)

Abstract

An experiment was carried out at PAU, Ludhiana to study the effect of brassinolides (BRs) on the growth and yield of cucumber (cvs. Indam and Punjab Naveen). Plants were sprayed with brassinolides @ 500 ppm twice i.e. first at the time of 25% flowering and second at 15 days interval of after first spray. The observations were recorded on vine length, number of fruits per plant, average fruit weight and fruit yield. BRs promoted the vegetative growth of cucumber plant and increased its vine length by 9.50%. BRs also increased the number of fruits per vine and fruit weight by 13.26% and 2.2% than the non-treated plants. There was significant difference between varieties response to the application of BRs. The mean fruit yield of both the varieties was 12.46% higher than the untreated control.