Effect of Period of Pollen Storage and Pollination Day after Flower Opening on Fruit Set and Seed Yield in Bitter Gourd (Momordica charantia L.) under shade house

A field experiment was carried out at the Hi-tech Horticulture Unit, Saidapur Farm, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad during 2012-2013 to know the effect of period of pollen storage and pollination day after flower opening on fruit set, seed yield attributes in hybrid seed production of bitter gourd under shade house. There were three periods of pollen storage viz., pollination with fresh pollen (P1), Pollination with one day stored pollen (P2) and pollination with two day stored pollen (P3) with four pollination day after flower opening viz., S1: Pollination on the day flower opening, S2: Pollination one day after flower opening, S3: Pollination two day after flower opening, S4: Pollination three day after flower opening. These 8 treatment combinations were laid out in two factorial RCBD design with three replications. The results revealed that the fresh pollen recorded significantly higher fruit set (72.36 %), fruit weight (98.42 g), seed weight per fruit (4.12 g), seed yield per plant (59.34 g). Among the different pollination days after flower opening, pollination on the day of flower opening recorded significantly higher fruit set (71.43 %), fruit weight (97.78 g), seed weight per fruit (4.04 g), seed yield per plant (58.48 g).