Impact of NPK Fertigation on Indoor Productivity of Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) Under Dry Conditions of Kassala State, Sudan

Abstract

An experiment was carried out during March- August of two consecutive seasons (2017 and 2018) in a cooled plastic tunnel greenhouse (34m×9m). The objective of the study was to determine the effect of applying different rates of NPK (20:20:20) fertigation on the production of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) under greenhouse conditions at Kassala. The climate is semi desert with annual rainfall ranging between 100 and 250 mm, during July and October and temperature of 20 and 45 ^oC in winter and summer, respectively.  Intra-row and inter-row seeding of the most popular cucumber hybrid (Fatin) was made at 40 cm and 50 cm spacing respectively on silt-loamy soil. Five levels of NPK were fertigated at the rate of 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 g/m²/week. Treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design replicated thrice. The results showed the effect of treatments on cucumber growth parameters, namely, days to flowering, stem diameter and number of leaves per plant. The best growth parameters were recorded on the 50g/m²/week. The highest values of water and economic productivities were obtained with 50g/m²/week of NPK fertigation in both seasons. Hence, it is clear that the highest number of fruits per plant, fruit length, diameter and weight were obtained with NPK fertigation of 50g/m²/week compared to control for the two seasons.