Effect of Organic and Inorganic Fertilizers on Growth, Yield and Quality Attributes of Hybrid bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.)

Bitter gourd (Momordica charantia L.) is popular vegetable because of its rich nutritive value, high productivity and easy package of practices which respond favourably to application of different soil organic amendments like vermicompost. In this experiment it was designed to evaluate the effect of different combinations of organic (vermicompost) and inorganic (NPK) source of nutrients on growth, yield and quality of bitter gourd. The application of vermicompost @ 4.68 t ha-1 recorded 3.99 kg/ fruits per vine with an average fruit weight of 62.18 g/fruit. Application of NPK @ 100:60:50 kg ha-1 recorded maximum fruit yield/vine (3.64 kg) and with average fruit weight 56.75 g/fruit. Interaction effect of vermicompost @4.68 t ha-1 and inorganic fertilizer, NPK @ 50:30:25 kg ha-1 was found to be best treatment combination for yield and yield attributing traits and as well as for benefit cost ratios. The maximum yield i.e. 36.81 t ha-1 was found under the combined use of vermicompost@ 4.68 t ha-1 and inorganic fertilizer@ 50:30:25 kg ha-1. It was also observed that some of the quality attributes like TSS (o Brix), Zn and Fe content of the fruit were significantly influenced with the application of different levels of vermicompost while vitamin C and Fe were significantly affected with the application of both organic and inorganic fertilizers in different combinations.