PJB-2022-113
Evaluating indigenous Cucurbits as root stocks for cucumber crop to ameliorate the water shortage under climate change
Noor-us-Sabah
Abstract
Globally, cucumber (Cucumis sativus) is an important crop in human consumption and production. However, its growth and development are affected by various abiotic stresses such as drought which is an emerging threat to agriculture. Grafting improves cucumber growth, yield, and quality along with stress tolerance including drought stress. Therefore, the current study was planned to screen out the potential rootstock for improving the growth, productivity, and drought tolerance induction in cucumber crops. Grafting of cucumber (Cucumis sativus) on different local cucurbits rootstocks such as sponge gourd (Luffa aegyptiaca), bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria), pumpkin (Cucurbit pepo. L), and ridge gourd (Luffa acutangula) were used by applying three drought treatments with the following concentration (T0 = Control, T1= 75% AWC and T2= 50% AWC) under Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with the two-factor factorial arrangement. Statistical analysis of data was carried out by using Statistix 8.1. Three soil moisture treatments (100%, 75%, 50% AWC) will be applied with repeated measures. A normal treatment (control) will be irrigated at 100% AWC. For determining AWC, the pot will be filled with a soil mixture (FYM, silt, and soil) before planting, water to excess, covered with a plastic lid, and allowed to drain until a constant weight will be gained. The moisture content (38.8%) of the wet soil sample was measured using the gravimetric method. The soil mix will keep at 100% AWC by applying (1491 ml) of water, while 75% AWC (drought stress) is executed by 25% less water (1118 ml) of the control and 50% AWC (drought stress) imposed 50% less water (745 ml) of the control. The quantity of water utilized by the plants through evapotranspiration was added by weighing the pots on daily basis up to the required AWC level. Overall, statistically significant (P≤0.05) results were observed for different morphological, physiological, biochemical, and yield traits. The bottle-gourd grafted plants showed maximum shoot (80) and root lengths (9.5), fresh (91.5 and 14) and dry (40.5 and 7.0) weights. Similarly, higher photosynthetic rate (14.15), stomatal conductance (55.37), sub-stomatal CO2 (105.8), transpiration rate (4.0), and instantaneous water use efficiency (3.1) were also improved in bottle gourd grafted plants. Besides this, the highest antioxidants (SOD, CAT, and POX) activities and yield (809.6)attributes were also recorded maximum in bottle gourd grafted plants followed by pumpkin. Conclusively, bottle-gourd grafted plants induce drought tolerance in cucumber crops as compared to other rootstocks.
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