‘Pusa Santushti’: A New High-Yielding Bottle Gourd Variety

Abstract

‘Pusa Santushti’ is a new, high-yielding bottle gourd [Lagenaria siceraria (mol.) Standl.] cultivar developed from a local landrace from Rishikesh, Uttaranchal, India. At the edible stage fruit are green with soft pubescence, pear shaped, ˜20 cm in length, and ˜12 cm in diameter. Fruit set at night temperature of 10–12°C or 35–40°C under field conditions. Individual fruit weight varies from 0.8 to 1.0 kg and first fruit matures ˜60 days after sowing. The cultivar Pusa Santushti performed better than the check (‘Pusa Naveen’) in six locations over 3 years. This cultivar recommended by the All India Coordinated Research Projects on Vegetable Crops for release.

Keywords:

• Lagenaria siceraria
• Cultivar
• Multilocation trial