Effect of mycorrhiza, vermicompost and nanofertilizer on quantitative and qualitative characteristics of Cucurbita pepo L.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of mycorrhiza, vermicompost, and nanofertilizer on the quantitative and qualitative traits of Cucurbita pepo L. For this, a split plot-factorial experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three repetitions at a research farm in Miane Islamic Azad University in 2014 and 2015. Vermicompost was used in the main plots in three levels (V0: 0, V1: 10 t ha(-1) and V2: 20 t ha(-1)), and mycorrhiza and micro chelated nanofertilizer were used in the subplots, in two levels (M0: without mycorrhiza and M1: with mycorrhiza) and three levels (N0: 0, N1: 2 and N2: 4 per thousand concentration), respectively. The combined analysis of variance showed that vermicompost had significant effects on fruit weight, total dry weight, weight of seeds per fruit, number of seeds per fruit, seed yield, oil yield, fruit yield, and fruit diameter. The effects of nanofertilizer and vermicompost-mycorrhiza-nanofertilizer interaction on fruit weight, fruit diameter, and fruit yield were significant. Maximum grain yield (576.25 kg ha(-1)) and oil yield (190.16 kg ha(-1)) were obtained using V2N1 (20 t ha(-1) vermicompost and foliar spray of 2 per thousand nanofertilizer concentration). The maximum fruit yield (24,551.60 kg ha(-1)) was obtained using V2N2 (20 t ha-1 vermicompost and foliar spray of 4 per thousand nanofertilizer concentration). The minimum grain yield (150.89 kg ha(-1)) and oil yield (37.72 kg ha(-1)) were obtained using V0N0 (control). The minimum fruit yield (5,888.43 kg ha(-1)) was obtained using V0M0N0 (control). Thereby, it is recommended to use 20 tons vermicompost ha-1 and foliar spray of nanofertilizer in order to achieve an acceptable yield in Cucurbita pepo L.