Bittergourd: Pusa Hybrid 1
Pusa Hybrid 1 is proved to be a superior one over Pusa Do Mausami and Pusa vishesh.Its gives42 -58% higher yield ,hence released for commercial cultivation.Vines are medium in growth with broad leaves and dark in colour. The fruits are attractively green, medium-long and medium-thick (fruit length, 13.5 cm and breadth, 5.0 cm and flesh thickness of 7.3mm) with irregular smooth tubercles on the surface and on an average it weiges about 100 g. The fruits are suitable for making vegetable, pickles and also for dehydration purpose. Its average yield is 218 q/ha.
Cultivation practices:
It is suitable for growing in spring-summer season, ideal sowing time is Mid-February to early-March. The land should be prepared by ploughing 4-5 times so as to make the soil quite loose and mallow. Mixing of well-rotten farmyard manure @ 12-15 tonnes and a mixture of 100 kg single superphosphate, 50 kg urea and 50 kg of muriate of potash/ha at the time of land preparation is beneficial. At the time of last ploughing, BHC (5% dust) @ 10-15 kg/ha should be mixed in the soil. This helps control termines and cut-worms damaging young seedlings. After this channels 45 cm wide and 25-30 cm deep are made from east to west direction. The spacing from channel-to-channel is kept 2m. About 6-7 kg seed is enough for a hectare crop.
The stored seeds should be soaked in Captaf @ g/litre of water for 24 hr for a quick germination and to save its young seedlings from any fungal infection. The seeds are sown in hills 0.50 m apart on the northern slopes of the channels. The crop should be irrigated lightly every fourth to sixth day depending upon soil, climate and stage of the crop. The crop should be topdressed with 50-60 kg urea in 2 splits 20 and 40 days after sowing. Weeding should be done twice or thrice to keep crop weed-free. In spring-summer season, if weather is dry, its crop is usually free from any insect pest and diseases infection. Therefore there is no need to give any kind of spraying.
