Effect of stage of harvest and post harvest ripening on hybrid seed yield and quality in bottle gourd

The present experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of stage of harvest and post harvest ripening on seed yield and quality of bottle gourd cv. Pusa Hybrid-3 during kharif 2009–10 and 2010–11. The treatment consists of four stages of fruit harvest (40, 50, 60 and 70 days after anthesis), four post harvest repining periods (10, 20, 30 and 40 days post harvest ripening) and their combinations. Significantly maximum fruit weight (2.02 kg), fruit length (44.51 cm), number of filled seeds per fruit (484.3) and seed yield per fruit (72.23 g), higher germination (94.38%), seedling length (33.08 cm), protein content of seed kernel (38.43%) and oil content of seed kernel (53.74%) were recorded in the fruits harvested at 60 days after anthesis. Significantly, higher fruit weight (2.00 kg) and fruit length (45.17 cm) was noticed with 10 day of post harvest ripening period, whereas number of filled seed per fruit (472.7), was higher at 40 days of post harvest ripening period. The post harvest ripening period had significant effect on seed quality parameters, viz., higher germination (94.55%), seedling length (31.44 cm), weight of seed coat (0.3763 g) and weight of cotyledon (0.370) were noticed at 30 days of post harvest ripening period.