Effect of Locally Available Potting Mixture on Nursery Raising of Summer Squash (Cucurbita pepo Linn.) under Organic Conditions

A study entitled "effect of locally available potting mixture on nursery raising of summer squash (Cucurbita pepo Linn.) under organic conditions" was carried out at Model Organic Farm of the Department of Organic Agriculture, CSK HPKV, Palampur during 2011. Eight different treatments of local organic potting materials were tested for their suitability for growing seedlings of summer squash in thermocol glasses of 150 ml capacity. The treatments were laid out in CRD with three replications. The same set of experiment was repeated thrice over three sowing dates at one month interval under protected structure i.e., 20th January 2011 (first sowing), 22nd February 2011 (second sowing) and 22nd March 2011 ( third sowing) . The pooled analysis over three sowing dates showed that the potting mixture comprising of two parts vermicompost + one part soil+ one part sand+ one fourth part wood ash was found to be the best organic material for growing the seedlings of summer squash. This potting material produced 91.78 percent healthy seedlings for transplanting, which could be easily pulled out with intact ischolar_maining mixture from the thermocol glasses. Small thermocol glasses can be used as an alternative to pro/plug trays or polythene bags as potting base for growing individual seedlings of cucurbits. It can be an affordable, cheaper and easily available technology for nursery raising of cucurbits in the country like India where majority of the farmers are small and marginal.