Tropical and subtropical vegetables (2+1)

Preparation of land

• Land should be thoroughly prepared in order to get fine tilth for seed bed.

Sowing
2.5 kg seeds are required for a hectare area. Seeds are directly sown in the soil. In some cases where early crop is desired, seeds can be sown in PE bags (10X15cm) of 100-200 gauges and germinated under cover to protect them from low temperature.

Spacing
In general row distance of 1.5 -2.5 m and hill to hill distance of 60-90 cm is advocated.

Nutrition
Fertilizers should be given as per availability of nutrients in the soil after soil testing.
Table. Recommended quantity of NPK in various parts of India
State	N (kg/ha)	P (kg/ha)	K(kg/ha)
Punjab	100	50	50
Himachal Pradesh	100	50	50
Karnataka	60	0	50
Tamil Nadu	35	0	0
Maharashtra	50	40	0
Orissa	50	30	75
Full dose of N &K & half of N should be applied as basal dose and remaining 50% N should be incorporated into the soil during earthing up.

Irrigation
Frequent irrigation is very important in spring summer crop, while in rainy season crop irrigation may not be necessary at all if the rainfall is well distributed between July-Sep. Over irrigation should be avoided, as cucumber cannot withstand under water logging conditions.

Weeding
For successful growing of cucumber, early stages of crop growth to be kept from weeds. At the time of top dressing with N fertilizer, weeding and earthing up are done. When the vines start spreading, weeding in between the rows or ridges become unnecessary since vine growth can smother the weeds. As mentioned in case of muskmelon flochloralin at 1.20 kg a-i/ha (pre-plant), flochloralin 0.48 kg + nitrogen at 0.5 kg/ha (pre-emergence) could be applied to control the weeds in cucumber.

Use of Growth regulators
Application of Ethrel (150-200 ppm) increase the number of flowers, fruit set and in turn increases the yield. GA (1500-2000ppm) and silver nitrate (200-300 ppm) induce male flowers on gynocecious cucumber. Soil drenching of paclobutrazol 75 ppm increases the yield. These chemicals/plant growth regulators may be applied at 2 true- leaf stage and repeat the spray at 4 true leaf stages.

Pruning
Pruning of all the primary branches after 2 nodes gives highest yield compared to unpruned once.