Impact of Plant Growth Regulators on Salad Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) Vine Length and Yield

Training of salad cucumber vines is a very labour and time-consuming  task. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate  the impact of plant growth regulators(PGRs) on the length and yield of salad cucumber vines. The experiment al design used was a Completely Randomized Design with four replicates. T1=Cycocel (0.4375 ml/L water), T 2=Sodium Nitrophenolate (0.4 ml/L water), T3=Ethephon (0.325 ml/L water), T4=Paclobutrazol(250 mg/L wate r), and T5=Without PGRs (control) were the five treatments. Treatments were applied once a week. Growth parameter s were recorded weekly while yield parameters were recorded at harvest. Data were analyzed by ANOVA using the  SAS software. Subsequently, means were separated by Dunnett’s test. Results revealed that the vine lengths were significantly low from the treatments T3 (Ethephon , 251 cm) and T4 (Paclobutrazol, 166.33 cm). The number of leaves per vine was significantly highest from T3 (Ethephon,  56 leaves) and T4 (Paclobutrazol, 42 leaves) produced the significantly lowest number of leaves per vine. Additionally , the significantly lowest length of internodes for the 14^th and 21^st internodes resulted from T3 (Ethephon, 3.36 cm,  3.33 cm)  and T4 (Paclobutrazol, 2.96 cm, 3.33 cm). The significantly lowest leaf area in the 15th leaf resulted from T4 (P aclobutrazol, 321.86 cm²) while the significantly highest leaf area in the 30th leaf resulted from T3 (Ethephon, 303.64 cm2). Furthermore, a significantly higher number of nodes per  1 m of vine length was reported from T3 (Ethephon, 17.66 nodes) and T4 (Paclobutrazol, 20 nodes). In terms of  yield parameters, the significantly lowest fruit weight (530.33 g), length (13.45 cm), and number of fruits (5.66) wer e recorded from T3 (Ethephon). Thus, T4 (Paclobutr azol) is suitable for shortening the vine length along with a  greater yield of salad cucumber vines.