1. What are the characteristic features of cucurbits?

Describe the river bed cultivation practices of

cucurbits as a whole.Discuss the sex forms of cucurbits in brief. (3+3+4 )

Ans: General characteristics feature of Cucurbitaceae family:

1)Long tap root system: grow upto 175-180 cm and laterals are confined to top 60cm.

2)Branched stem: stem is 3-8 branched prostate,climbing and spreading upto 9-10 cm.

3)Leaf:simple, mostly 3-5 lobed,palmate and rarely pinnately lobed.(Citrullis sp.)

4)Tendrill:On axils of leaves,simple in Cucumis,simple or bifida in others and absent in bush types.

5) Pollination: highly cross pollinated and pollination is done by honey bees and bumble bees.
Pollination vectors have a significant effect on size-related floral sex ratio patterns.

6)Flower: Born in the axil of leaves and solitary or in racemose clusters. Individual flowers are
unisexual,large and showy.

7)Fruit: Essentially an inferior berry and is called as 'Pepo' due to hard rind when mature.
8)Seed:Borne in parietal placentation.

River bed cultivation of cucurbits:

River bed commonly known as diara land is a basin or bank area or area between two or more
streams of river and known as Khadar, Kachhar, Doab, Dariyari, Kochar, Nad, Tali and Nadiari by
several local names. River bed cultivation is a kind of vegetable forcing, facilitating off season
production of mainly cucurbitaceous vegetables. In India, cultivation of cucurbits like watermelon,
muskmelon, long melon,pumpkin, summer squash, ridge gourd, smooth gourd, snake gourd, bitter
gourd and bottle gourd occurs mostly in North and Central India. In some areas of Kerala and
cultivation of pointed gourd in Eastern U.P., Bihar and West Bengal is more common under river bed
conditions to catch early market and fetches more profit.

Sex form: 1.Hermaphrodite form: Bioexual flowers are only produced in a plant eg. Satputia variety

of ridge gourd and in a few lines of cucumber and munk melon.

2.Monoecious form: Plants produce male and female flowers in a plant eg. Majority of cucurbits.

3.Andro-monocciosas form: Planes produce both male and bisexual flowers in a plant e.g. Musk
melon and some cultivars of watermelon.

4.Gyno-monoecius form: Plants produce female and bisexual flowers eg cucumber.

5.Gynoecious form: Plants produce female flower only eg. Rarely noticed in a few lines of cucumber.

6.Trimonoecious form: The male, female and bisexual flowers are produced in a single plant.

7.Dioecious form: Male and female planes are produced on separate plants eg. Parwal,Coccinia and
kakrol.
Controlling sex expression of Cucurbits or sex modification in Cucurbits:

Majority of the cucurbits are monoecious and sex ratio (male: female) ranges from 25-30: 1 to 15: 1.
Andro-monoecious sex forms in cucurbits are also very common where staminate and
hermaphrodite flowers are borne separately on the same plant (eg. musk melon, bottle gourd,
bitter gourd, ridge gourd, sponge gourd, snake gourd etc.)

In these sex forms fruit set and yield depends on the number of pistillate and perfect flowers.
Generally, male flowers appear on the first 4-6 flowering nodes and later pistillate/hermaphrodite
flowers. In both the sex forms proportion of staminate flowers is very high than the
pistillate/hermaphrodite flowers. Therefore, a high female to male ratio is desirable to increase fruit
set and finally yield.

In cucurbits sex ratio is influenced by environmental factors such as long days, high temperature
and high N content in soil favour maleness. Besides, gibberellins (GA₁), ethylene and abscissic acid
also determine the ratio and sequence of flowering. The lower the node number on which a female
flower appears, earlier is the variety.

A. Cultural practice to be followed to regulate sex expression:

i. Induction of femaleness: 1.Avoid over irrigation 2.Avoid excess application of nitrogenous

fertilizer Because these lead to profuse vegetative growth eventually promotes the maleness.

B. Use of growth regulators to regulate sex expression:

i. Induction of femaleness:

a)High ethylene (trade name ethrel) induces femaleness.

b)Ethylene is used in the form of ethephon, the active ingredient of which is 2-chloro ethyl
phosphonic acid, is an unstable compound, when its pH increases, this compound breaks down to
release ethylene.

c)Other compounds like - Maleic hydrazide (MH), 2,3,5-tri-iodobenzoic acid (TIBA), 2- Chloroethyl
phosphonic acid (2-CEPA), 6-benzylamino purine (BA), boron and calcium are also used to induce
femaleness