Vol. 8, Issue 12, Part B (2024)

The present study entitled “Effect of glazing material and sowing time on growth, yield and quality of muskmelon under low poly tunnel” was carried out at Vegetable Research Farm, Regional Horticultural Research Station, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari during the Rabi season of 2021. An experiment was carried out with two factors having glazing materials viz., P1: plastic film glazed low poly tunnel (50 µ), P2: biodegradable Plastic low poly tunnel and P3: Open field and sowing time namely S1: 2^nd week of December, S2: 3^rd week of December, S3: 4^th week of December, S4: 5^th week of December and S5: 1^st week of January fifteen treatment combinations. All the treatment combinations were replicated thrice and laid out in a randomized block design with factorial concept. The cladding of biodegradable plastic on low tunnel (P2) exhibited the significantly minimum days to appearance of first staminate flower (31.64), number of node of first staminate flower (1.96), days to appearance of first pistillate flower (35.92), number of node of first pistillate flower (3.31) and sex ratio (17.07) as well as maximum vine length (193.31 cm), vine girth (8.89 mm), number of secondary branches vine^-1 (10.72) and length of secondary branches vine^-1 (111.73 cm) In terms sowing date, significantly influenced growth parameters viz., the minimum days to appearance of first staminate flower (33.58), number of node of first staminate flower (2.33), days to appearance of first pistillate flower (36.78) and number of node of first pistillate flower (4.09) as well as maximum vine length (177.78 cm), vine girth (8.01 mm), number of secondary branches vine^-1 (9.71) and length of secondary branches vine^-1 (104.34 cm) were recorded when sowing done in 3^rd week of December (S2).