Standardization of sowing date and covering material under low tunnels for early harvest of longmelon

The field experiment was conducted at research farm of ICAR-Central Institute for Arid Horticulture, Bikaner, Rajasthan during 2017–18 and 2018–19 to standardize the date of sowing and covering material. Under different dates of sowing and covering material long melon took 41–50, 4455 and 50–62 days after sowing for first male flower, first female flower and first harvest at marketable stage, respectively. Thetreatment T3 (20th December with polythene sheet) recorded the highest number of days for last harvest followed by T4 (20th December with non-woven cloth), while the least number of days for last harvest was recorded in T9 (10th Februaryunder open condition). The crop raised under tunnel (T2–10th December with non-woven cloth) attained the harvestable maturity on 9th February in comparison to open filed sowing(T9) came in harvesting on 2ndApril which was 49 days later than the tunnel. The sowing on second date of sowing with polythene covering (T3–20th December with polythene sheet) recorded the highest yield and fruiting duration followed by the sowing on same date with nonwoven cloth covering (T4–20th December with non-woven cloth). An advancement of 24–50 days was recorded with first two dates of sowing as compared to normal season which fetches higher price in the market.