Performance of Sponge Gourd Cultivars under Organic and Inorganic Fertilizer Regimes

S ponge gourd (Luffa acutangula L. Roxb) is locally known as Kalitori.It is also called angled gourd or angled loofah belonging to genus Luffa of Cucurbitaceae family (Zohura et al., 2013).Luffa is cross-pollinated crop having 26 chromosomes (Bal et al., 2004).It is a tropical and subtropical vine vegetable and is originated from America (Mazali and Alves, 2005).Sponge gourd is mainly composed of lignin, cellulose and hemicelluloses (Rowell et al., 2002).It is a nutrition powerhouse, an ideal weight loss food Abstract | Sponge gourd (Luffa acutangula L. Roxb) is locally known as Kalitori.It is also called angled gourd or angled loofah, belonging to genus Luffa of Cucurbitaceae family.Macro nutrients such as Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium play a significant role in the plant growth and development such as nitrogen support the vegetative parts of the plant and phosphorus have significant role in the development of the root and also producing the energy by forming ATP and potassium encourage carbohydrates metabolism, enzymes establishment and osmotic regulation This experiment was conducted at Agriculture Research Institute Tarnab, Peshawar during spring season (March-june) 2016.Randomized Complete Block Design was used with split plot arrangement having three replications.The sponge gourd Luffa acutangula cultivars ( Jaipuri and Dharidhar) were allotted to the main plot while organic and inorganic regimes (i.e.Control, NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium), FYM (Farmyard manure), FYM (half ) + NPK (half ), FYM (full) + NPK (half ), FYM (full) + NPK (full) and FYM (half ) + NPK (full) were allotted to sub plots .The results obtained from the experiment indicated that both cultivars and regimes have significant variations on growth and yield parameters of sponge gourd.In case of cultivars, minimum days to emergence (11.14 days), days to flowering (36.76 days), days to blooming (43.86 days) while maximum seed emergence (80.43 %), numbers of leaves plant -1 (45.87), leaf area (99.87 cm 2 ), number of fruit plant -1 (7.94), fruit weight (289.20 g), fruit volume (193.84 cm 3 ), yield plant -1 (2.42 kg) and total yield (12.09 t ha -1 ) were obtained by Jaipuri cultivar.While in case of manure regimes maximum vine length (465.50 cm), number of leaves plant -1 (49.13), leaf area (110.48 cm 2 ), (14.09 cm), number of fruit plan -1 (9.25), yield plant -1 (3.35 kg), total yield (16.75 t ha -1 ) and minimum days to blooming (43.67 days) were recorded in the application of FYM (full) + NPK (full) while maximum fruit weight (361.28 g) and fruit volume (218.87 cm3) was noted on FYM (full) + NPK (half ).From the experiment, it is concluded that FYM at the rate of 20 t ha -1 and NPK at 90: 60: 30 kg ha -1 can be used for better and higher yield of sponge gourd under the climatic conditions of Peshawar.