Influence of Different Pre-Sowing Treatments on Seed Germination and Seedling Characteristics: A Case Study of Bitter Gourd (Momordica charantia L.), Bottle Gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) and Ridge Gourd (Luffa acutangula)

In order to study the influence of different pre-sowing treatments on seed germination and seedling characteristics of bitter gourd cultivar Co-1, bottle gourd cultivar Pusa summer prolific long and ridge gourd cultivar Arka sumeet an experiment was conducted at Horticulture orchard, Department of Horticulture, Annamalai University during zaid season 2022. Three cucurbits were soaked in various treatments like T1-Control, T2-Tap water @ 24 hours, T3-GA3 @ 100 ppm with 24 hours of soaking, T4- GA3 @ 200 ppm with 24 hours of soaking, T5-100% Coconut water @ 24 hours of soaking, T6-3% Panchagavya @ 24 hours of soaking, T7-100% Fresh Milk @ 24 hours of soaking and T8-Azospirillum @ 24 hours to determine the best treatment. The study findings generally indicate that the seeds of bitter gourd, bottle gourd and ridge gourd responded in a variety of ways depending on the pre-sowing techniques used. Based on the study, the results indicated that the treatments T4- GA3 @ 200 ppm with 24 hours T5-100% Coconut water @ 24 hours and T6-3% Panchagavya @ 24 hours of soaking have shown the highly significant compared to the T1- control and enhanced the germination percentage, shoot length, root length, seedling length and vigour index on all the three cucurbits. These results can be used for developing future research on plant growth improvements and this approach has need to deliberate by modern farmers.