Maintenance of gynoecious line of cucumber, Cucumis sativas L through induction of staminate flower using silver nitrate and silver thiosulphate

The present experiment was carried out during Kharif season under natural ventilated polyhouse (NPV) condition at protected unit of College of Horticulture and Forestry, Jhalawar, Rajasthan in 2012. The treatments consisted of two chemicals viz silver nitrate (200 and 400 ppm) and silver thiosulphate (2 and 4 mM) applied once (at 2–3 true leaf stage) and twice (at 2–3 true leaf stage and 7 days after the first application) in soil and as foliar application on ten gynoecious plants of cv Infinity and Hilton grown in RBD with three replications. Of the two chemicals silver thiosulphate performed better over silver nitrate. Further the response of different treatments on cultivars was better in foliar application than soil application. Two applications of the same treatment performed better over its single application. Application of silver thiosulphate @ 2 mM (twice) followed by silver nitrate @ 400 ppm (twice) was found better for induction of staminate, plants induced staminate flowers (%), total number of staminate flowers/plant, node number up to which staminate flowers appeared and number of pollens per flower in two gynoecious lines of cucumber. Higher doses of silver nitrate showed toxicity effect on leaves however the plants got recovered within seven to ten days.