QUALITY SEED PRODUCTION IN PUMPKIN Introduction

In cucurbitaceous vegetables, pumpkin is an important vegetable. It is rich in calcium and phosphorus. It is available for cheaper cost, rich in nutrients and can be stored for further use. Even though it posses so many advantages characters, the production is less because of non availability of quality seed material. Normally we are extracting seeds from the vegetable crop for further sowing. Moreover the seed recovery potential from pumpkin fruits is very less (1.0 1.3%). Hence, it is necessary to learn the quality seed production in pumpkin.

Selection of land for quality seed production

The selection of land is the first and foremost task for a seed producer. The seed production plot must be selected carefully. A fertile and healthy seed plot will certainly produce quality seed. The field selected for seed production must not have been sown with pumpkin in the previous season. This is done to avoid volunteer plants that cause admixture.

Soil with neutral pH must be selected. Loam or clay loam soils are best suited. Higher organic matter will lead to production of vigorous seed.

What are volunteers?

Volunteers are plants that grow in the field from the seeds found in the soil. These seeds should have been fallen from previous season crop. As they germinate without sowing or they volunteer to grow by themselves, hence the name volunteer plants.

Isolating the seed crop to avoid genetic contamination

Quality seed must be genetically and physically pure. Genetic purity can be maintained by preventing cross pollination with other undesirable varieties. This is achieved by isolating the seed crop.

Isolation is the act of growing the seed crop away from a contaminant such that cross pollination is prevented. Pumpkin is a highly cross pollinated crop because flowering is monoecious in nature. Hence it requires 500 M (1500 feet) away from another variety of pumpkin

Selecting the right season for raising seed crop

Seed is very sensitive to weather. Hence selecting the right season is necessary. Though pumpkin can be grown throughout the year, seed crop should be grown such that the seed matures in cool dry climate. This will facilitate proper ripening of fruits and reduce the pest and disease infection. Seasons are selected with this idea in mind. In Tamil Nadu the best seed crop growing seasons are Aadi and Thai Pattam i.e. June-July and January - February.

Seed selection

Selecting ripe and vigorous seed is the first step in production of robust seedling which will ultimately lead to producing quality seed. Planting robust seedling will impart disease and pest resistance and help in proper uptake of precious fertilizer applied to the main field. Proper care must be taken to avoid the usage of aged seeds those are stored for more than a year.

Selection of seeds is the first step in production of quality seed. This involves selection of seeds with the right genetic make-up of the variety chosen to be produced. Seeds must be from an approved source. This is possible if the seed is got from the breeding firm / university research station or from the breeder himself. Verify if the seed brought has breeder seed tag (for producing foundation seed); foundation seed tag ( for production of certified seed). Further, the seeds must be free from pest and diseases: Rotten, dull coloured, black spotted seeds must be removed. Seeds of uniform size and shape alone must be used for sowing.

Preparation of main field and sowing

After proper ploughing, at a spacing of 2.5 x 2 m distance take pits having 45 cm length, width and height. Ten days after that, apply 10 kg FYM and urea 30 g, super phosphate 72 g and potash 19 g per pit. Then mix the above nutrients with soil and fill the pits and level them.

Sowing

Seed required for an acre (400 g/ acre) may be treated with fungicides before sowing. Then five seeds may be sown in a pit at equal distance.

Irrigation management

Immediately after sowing pits should be irrigated with water cane. Care must be taken that the soil should not be eroded and seed should not be exposed. After the seedling emergence, field should be irrigated once in a week.

Main field maintenance

Ten days after the germination, retain three vigourous seedlings per pit and remove two seedlings. So that it will facilitate for better growth of seedling without any competition between them.

Controlling weed

Maintaining the field free of weed is more important for the crop growth. In pumpkin, one or two manual weeding is necessary before the flowering stage.

Field care

Growth regulator spray

Generally in cucurbitaceous vegetables the male and female flowers borne separately. The number of female flowers decides the fruit yield. Hence, for pumpkin, spraying of ethrel at 200 ppm for four times starting from four leaves stage and at weekly intervals (i.e. 2.0 ml of ethrel in 10 lit of water) is recommended. This facilitate for higher fruit yield.

Optimum stage for spraying of growth regulators

Top dressing

Seed crop is entirely different from vegetable crop. Hence, fertilizer is also applied as split doses. Apply 22g urea / pit 30 days after sowing as top dressing. This will facilitate the development and maturation of both fruit and seed. This leads to higher fruit bearing, higher fruit retention and quality seed yield.

Plant protection

Maintaining plant health is more important and hence prophylatic plant protection measure should be taken.

Red pumpkin beetle: Spray methyl demeton 1 ml/lit.

Powdery mildew: Spray carbendazim 0.1 %.

Yellow vein mosaic: White flies spread this disease. To control the insect vector spray monocrotophos or chlorpyriphos 2 ml plus 2 ml neem oil per lit of water.

Maintaining seed quality by rouging

One of the most important aspects of seed production is thorough roguing. Rogue is defined as presence of those plants that deviates from the characters described for the variety. Such rogues if left in the field they tend to reduce the genetic purity of the seed crop and thus reduce purchase value of resultant seed. Roguing is defined as the operation of removing rogues. In practice, all virus infected plants are to be removed.

When to do rouging?

Roguing is more effective if done prior to flowering, since upon flowering there is very high possibility of cross pollination. Roguing is also attempted during vegetative phase, fruit formation stage and prior to harvest.

Roguing during vegetative phase

During vegetative phase i.e. during first 30-35 days, roguing is attempted based on plant characters like height of plant, leaf shape, size, surface of leaf. Plants showing heavy branching and spreading nature are removed. Plants showing variation in stem or leaf base colour are also removed. Those plants showing symptoms of yellow mosaic are also removed.

Roguing during fruit formation phase

At this phase, the rogues are removed based on fruit characteristics like fruit, size, shape and colour.

Roguing during fruit harvest phase

Roguing is done prior to harvest based on fruit colour and pests and diseases infection. While harvesting separate infected fruits from good ones and forward only the uninfected fruits for seed extraction

Attention: Varietal characteristics for various crops are given at the end of this lesson.

Caution! All the rogues must be immediately removed from the seed field and destroyed.

Harvesting

Maturity index in pumpkin is change in fruit colour to orange or pale yellow colour. At that stage, the seeds attain maturity with higher vigour and viability.

Correct stage for harvest

The harvests will be done in different pickings in pumpkin. Here the first and last one or two harvests may be taken for vegetable. The harvest should be done from other harvests for seed extraction. Fruits confirming the genetic purity with medium to large size fruits should alone be used for seed extraction. This selection and grading procedures will increase the yield of quality seed recovery. For seed purpose generally harvest will be done 7-10 days after the maturity of vegetables. Since, at that stage the seeds will attain its maturity. At that stage, pumpkin fruits become orange or pale yellow colour and the fruit stalk will also dry. .

Processing to improve seed quality

After the fruit harvest and before the seed extraction, only healthy fruits of true to type and free from pest/ disease infestation are to be se-lected for seed extraction.

Seed extraction method

The selected fruits confirming the genetic characters alone should be used for seed extraction and also fruits weighing less than 1.5 kg should be rejected and can be sold out in the market as vegetable. Seed extraction is easy in pumpkin. First cut the fruits into two halves by crosswise. Then remove the seed by scraping and wash with water.

Fruits selected for separation of seeds

Seed separation by cutting the fruits

Seed drying

Seeds extracted by the above method have a moisture content of 12--13% and have to be dried before storage. The seeds are dried by spreading them over a tarpaulin for 8-10 hrs under partial shade. This is followed by sun drying where the seeds are dried between 8 am-12noon and 3-5 pm only. Drying during the hot hours of 12 noon - 3pm will lead to seed damage caused by higher temperature and presence of UV radiation in sunlight.

Seed cleaning and processing

After proper drying seeds have to be processed to remove the ill filled and small size seeds and there by improving the vigour and viability. For pumpkin seed processing BSS 4 wire mesh sieve or 16/64 round

perforated metal sieve is to be used. After sieving, those seeds that are broken, fungal infected, seed coat damaged seeds are removed.

Caution!

While using wire mesh or round holed sieves, be thorough in cleaning the sieves. Any remnant of previous crop seed will lead to contamination. Seed generally get struck in the holes and have to be removed before commencing the sieving operation.

Small and illfilled seeds

Good quality seeds

Protecting seeds during storage

Producing quality seeds is only half of the job, the other half is protecting the seed during its storage that starts after processing till it is sown by the farmer. The major aspects that impart good storability are adequate seed moisture, seed treatment, mid-storage correction and seed storage container.

Seed moisture

Seed moisture is the foremost seed physical attribute that contributes for storage life. Lower the seed moisture, longer the shelf life. Short term storage can be achieved by drying the seeds to 6-7% moisture content while long term storage is possible by reducing the seed moisture even further to 6%. Under such low moisture content, seeds have to be stored in moisture proof bags made of thick polythene (700guage).

Seed treatment

Prior to storage, seeds are treated with fungicide to ward off fungal pathogens. Seeds are mixed with Carbendazim 4g/kg. A novel technique called Halogen permeation treatment is also recommended nowa-days. Calcium oxy-chloride, commercially known as bleaching powder and powdered calcium carbonate (lime stone) is mixed in equal ratio. This mixture is added to seed at 5g / kg and stored.

Seed container

Apart from seed and seed treatment, the next most important aspect of seed storage is seed container. Container can be chiefly differentiated as moisture pervious and moisture impervious types. Cloth, paper, gunny bags are moisture pervious as the moisture from outside atmosphere can enter and exit freely. Hence, even if the seed is dried to safe moisture, but stored in a humid climate, then seed gains moisture during storage and losses vigour. So, to safely store seeds in moisture pervious bag, the outside humidity must be low. In Tamil Nadu, most of the months are hot and humid, hence after drying the seed to safe moisture limit, seeds can be safely stored in moisture vapour proof containers like thick polythene bag of 700g or in tin / plastic containers that are sealed tightly. In case of short term storage ( 4-6 months) cloth or gunny will be sufficient.

Seed certification

Seed certification guarantees the quality of seed as it ensures that the certified seed has the genetic, physical, physiological and seed health qualities. Genetic purity means that the seed gives rise to a plant which conforms to the varietal characteristics of the variety. The physical purity means that the seed is free from stones, broken seeds, straw bits and leaf bits etc. Physiological quality is measured by germination and seed health envisages freedom from pest and diseases.

Seed certification is being done in many stages. It starts from verifying whether seeds were obtained from authenticated source, verification of isolation distance and inspection during plant growth, flowering, harvesting, processing and bagging. Also seed samples are drawn form the seed lot and sent to seed testing lab to test whether the seeds are possessing required physical purity and germination. Then certification tag is issued. Colour of the tag is blue for certified seeds.

Only those seeds harvested from fields having prescribed field standards and possessing required seed standards are certified by the Certification Agency. Seeds thus certified are offered for sales. For further details nearer seed certification office may be contacted.

Minimum seed certification standards prescribed for certified seed

Field standards

Rogues (maximum limit)

0.2%

Seed standards

Pure seeds (minimum limit)

98.0%

Inert matter (maximum limit)

2.0%

Other crop seeds (maximum limit)

None

Weed seeds (maximum limit)

None

Germination (minimum limit)

60.0%

Moisture content

Moisture proof bag

6.0%

Moisture pervious bag

7.0%

Varietal characteristics of some commonly grown pumpkin

Variety Characteristics

CO1

Large size, oblong in shape. Higher fruit weight (8-10kg). Tender fruits are pale violet in colour.

CO2

Small size,(1.5kg) flat round in shape. Tender fruits are brown in colour.