Studies on influence of stage of harvest and postharvest ripening of fruits on seed yield and quality in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L)

The present investigations were carried out during kharif season of 2014–15 on cucumber cv K-75. A completely randomized factorial design experiment was conducted with 15 treatments with three replications that comprised two factors viz stage of harvest (H) and postharvest ripening period (P). These factors were three stages of harvest viz fruit harvested at 30 days after anthesis (H₁), fruit harvested at 40 days after anthesis (H₂), fruit harvested at 50 days after anthesis (H₃) and five postharvest ripening periods viz no postharvest ripening (P₁), 7 days postharvest ripening (P₂), 14 days postharvest ripening (P₃), 21 days postharvest ripening (P₃) and 28 days postharvest ripening (P₅). The observations in laboratory were recorded on seed yield per fruit, per cent seed recovery, 1000seed weight, per cent filled seeds, emergence, germination, seedling length, seed vigour index-I (SVI-I), seed moisture content and seed leachate conductivity. Analysis of variance showed significant differences among the treatment combinations for all the characters studied. The treatment combination fruit harvested at 40 days after anthesis and 14 days of postharvest ripening (H₂P₃) was significantly better over all other treatments in terms of seed quality characters and was at par with fruit harvested at 50 days after anthesis and 14 days of postharvest ripening (H₃P₃) in terms of seed yield traits. Therefore treatment combination fruit harvested at 40 days after anthesis and 14 days of post harvest ripening ie H₂P₃can be recommended for commercial seed production of cucumber.