Influence of indigenous bee attractants on qualitative and quantitative parameters of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.)
HK Wankhede, Dr. SR Kulkarni and SA Pawar
Cucumber is an important vegetable crop among cucurbitaceous crops. It depends on various pollinators specially bees. Studies were made on the role of honey bees on seed production of cucumber in Mahatma Phule Agricultural University, Rahuri. Dist: Ahmednagar, Maharashtra. The crop was raised with recommended packages of practices in Randamised Block Design with plot size 3.0 m x 3.0 m and spacing 1 X 0.5 m during kharip season 2017. Ten treatments viz.,T1- Open pollination, T2- Pollination without insect, T3-Sugar solution 5%, T4 - Sugar solution 10%, T5 -Sugarcane juice 5%, T6 -Sugarcane juice 10%, T7 -Jaggery solution 5%, T8 -Jaggery solution 10%, T9- Molasses 5% and T10 -Molasses 10% were used for such experiment. The higher yield contributing characters like number of fruits (19.20 fruit/plant), Number of seeds (283 seeds/fruit), Test wt (10.72 g/fruit) and total yield (69.55 q/ha) were recorded in 10 per cent jaggary solution and found to be the best attractant followed by 5 per cent jaggary solution and 10 per cent sugar solution comparing with open pollination and pollination without insect.
HK Wankhede, Dr. SR Kulkarni, SA Pawar. Influence of indigenous bee attractants on qualitative and quantitative parameters of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.). J Entomol Zool Stud 2018;6(4):1241-1244.