The Effect of Plastic Mulch and Low Tunnels on Early Production of Squash (Cucurbitapepo L.)

The research was conducted on hybrid Squash (Nancy F1) at Tishreen University in the growing season of spring 2013 in order to study the effect of ground covering and low tunnels on the early production of squash. The study consisted of four experimental treatments: the control (without covering) and three covering treatments (ground covering using black mulch, ground covering with a low plastic tunnel, and a low plastic tunnel without ground covering). The completely randomized design was used with three replications per treatment and ten plants per replication. The results showed that the covering with a low plastic tunnel was superior to other treatments, resulting in a clear increase in female flowers, the ratio of female flowers to the total flowers, fruit number, and plant production. The results also showed a strong positive correlation between the plant production and the number of female flowers (r=0.999), the number of fruit per plant (r=0.999), the ratio of female flowers to the total flowers (r=0.990) and the total number of flowers (0.995). The correlation with male flowers was however negative (r=-0.954).

Effect of Times and Levels of Nitrogen Fertilization on the Characters of Vegetative Growth, Flowering and the Yield of Summer Squash (Cucurbita pepo L.) c.v. Mullah ahmad

This study was conducted at the vegetable field of department of horticulture and landscape design, college of agriculture and forestry ,Mosul university, during spring of 2007 and 2008, to study the effect of times and levels of nitrogen fertilization on some characters vegetative growth, flowering ,and yield of summer squash .Result indicated that, the time of nitrogen fertilization at the stage of fruit-set caused a significant increased in the leaf number /plant ,length of the plant and the fresh weight/plant. While the time of nitrogen fertilization wasn't affected significantly the total yield. The level at 320 kg.N/ha caused a significant increase of the characters vegetative growth and total yield. Also result revealed that, the interaction between the stage at fruit set and nitrogen fertilization at 320 kg.N/ha led to increase the total yield .The yield was found to positively correlation with the plant length ,fresh and dry weights of plant, leaf area, fruit weight, male and female flowers, and the sex ratio.

Study of the Most Important Morphological and Productivity Characters of the Inbreed Lines of Squash Cucurbita Pepo L.

In this research, nine inbreed lines of squash (Cucurbita pepo, L) have been studied during 2007-2008 seasons. The study contains plant phonological phases, and the most important morphological and productivity characteristics related to fruit yield to evaluate the characteristics of every line and identify the economical lines to use it in the breeding programs. The study showed genetic variation between the groups for some important economic characteristics as (the number of fruits per plant, percentage of female flowers, yield per plant, stem long and number of nodes till the first female flower). The study also showed that the inbreed lines of squash is a rich source of variation and can be use in a breeding program to product squash hybrid. The results appeared also the positive correlation between the productivity and some important economic characteristics, such as percentage of female flowers (r=0.871**), the number of fruits per plant (r=0.976**). Whereas negative correlation with the nodes till he first female flower (r=- 0.494) and internodes long (r=- 0.447). Using cluster analysis, the inbreed lines were classified into 2 distinct classes A and B, Class A contained seven inbreed wreathe class B contained Tow inbreed lines.