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Response of pumpkin (Cucurbita ficifolia L.) to some growth regulators

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Response of pumpkin (Cucurbita ficifolia L.) to some growth regulators

V. O. Ntui *, E. A. Uyoh, O. Udensi and L. N. Enok
Department of Genetics and Biotechnology, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria. *e-mail: ntuival@yahoo.com

Received 12 December 2006, accepted 20 March 2007.

Abstract
Pumpkin (Cucurbita ficifolia L.) is a climbing or creeping monoecious annual plant grown in Nigeria for its stem, leaves, fruits and seeds, which are
rich sources of calcium, potassium and vitamins (niacin). The effects of growth regulator (IAA and BAP) applications [ 0 (distilled water, control),
50, 100 and 150 mg l-1] on the growth characteristics and sex expression in C. ficifolia were investigated. The research was carried out at the Biological
Science Experimental Farm, University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria, from May to September, 2006. The experimental design was a 2 x 4 factorial
arrangement on a Randomized Complete Block Design. Analysis of variance for the growth characters showed significant (P<0.05) increase in number
of leaves, leaf area, internode length, vine length, number of female flowers and number, size and weight of fruits in plants treated with IAA 100 mg
l-1. The control took significantly (P<0.05) fewer days to form fruit from flowering. Number of seeds per fruit was highest in IAA 50 mg l-1. IAA was
generally more effective in inhibiting male flowers and increasing the number of female flowers than BAP. Applications of growth regulators at higher
doses (150 mg l-1 for IAA and 100 and 150 mg l-1 for BAP) showed a decreasing effect in most of the characters studied. It is hoped that this
information will prove useful to researchers who wish to improve upon the agronomic characters of C. ficifolia.

Key words: Cucurbita ficifolia, growth characteristics, growth regulators, indole-3-acetic acid, 6-benzylaminopurine, sex expression.

Introduction
Cucurbita ficifolia is a climbing or creeping monoecious annual
plant. In some cases it may persist for a while, making it a short-
lived perennial 1, 2. The leaves have three to five rounded or
obtuse apiculate lobules, the central one higher than the lateral
ones. They are greenish in colour, with or without white spots on
the surface 3, 4. Stem is slightly angulated with three to five ramified
tendrils. Flowers are pentamerous, solitary and axillary. The fruit
vary greatly in size and shape, generally following the form of the
ovary. The fruit is soft and generally not fibrous. The flesh is
sweet, with numerous seeds which are ovate-eliptical, flattened
usually dark brown to black or cream white in colour 5.
Different parts of C. ficifolia are used as food by people from
different parts of the world. The young stems, leaves, unripe fruits
and flowers are eaten as cooked vegetable. The flesh of the ripe
fruit is used to prepare sweet alcoholic drinks as well as soft
drinks. It can also be used as fodder for animals 6. The flesh has a
delicious flavour (similar to sweet potato) when baked and eaten.
It can also be dried and ground into powder and used in making
bread. In some parts of eastern Nigeria, the leaves are wrapped
around fresh corn meal with termites, cooked and eaten as a delicacy
mostly by women and children. In Northern Nigeria, it is cultivated
for fruits, while in Southern Nigeria, C. ficifolia is cultivated for
the leaves and young stems which are usually added to soup and
stew, and also for the fruits whose pulp is cooked and eaten 7. The
seeds are eaten whole, roasted or toasted, and may be ground
and used in different stews 8. Seeds may also be used as
vermifuge 9.
In spite of the economic values of C. ficifolia, relatively little
progress has been made in Nigeria in developing new production
practices for yield improvement. The plant requires specific
conditions (draining soil, moderate temperature, pH 5.5-6.8,
mulching) to grow, and has a normal production cycle of five to
seven months 10-12.
Although many researchers have reported on the effect of
growth regulators on some cucurbits 13-15, one major problem still
facing the production of C.ficifolia in Nigeria is the lack of
information in the use of growth regulators to enhance growth,
development and yield. This research was therefore charged with
bridging such information gap. The objective of this study was to
determine the effect of different concentrations of IAA and BAP
on growth, yield and sex expression in C. ficifolia.
Materials and Methods
An experiment which lasted for 6 months (April-September, 2006)
was conducted at the Biological Science Experimental Farm,
University of Calabar, Calabar, Nigeria. Calabar is located on sandy
loamy soil and lies between latitude 4.5 to 5.2°N and longitude
8.0°E of the equator with annual rainfall ranging from 3500 to
500 mm and an average monthly temperature 25-27.5°C. Seeds of
Cucurbita ficifolia obtained from National Horticultural Research
Institute, Okiqwe, were sown on prepared beds, 4 seeds per hole.
The seeds were sown at a spacing distance of 90 cm x 120 cm and
a depth of 2.5 cm. Manure (poultry droppings) 1200 kg ha-1 was
uniformly applied four days before sowing. On germination,
seedlings were thinned to one per hole and weeding was carried
out regularly 11, 12, 16. The experimental design was a 2 x 4 factorial
arrangement on a randomized complete block design. A total of 8
blocks were used with eight treatment combinations per block,

Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment, Vol.5 (2), April 2007 211
giving a total of 64 experimental units in the entire experiment.
Four aqueous concentrations of each of the growth regulators
IAA (indole-3-acetic acid) and BAP (6-benzylaminopurine)
[0 (distilled water which served as control), 50, 100 and 150 mg l-1]
were applied on the plants by spraying the entire plant with 3
doses of the growth regulators at one week interval commencing
2 weeks after sowing (one week after germination). The control
plants were sprayed with distilled water at the same interval and
time. The spraying was done with a hand sprayer very early in the
morning between 6 h and 7 h GMT 14, 15. At maturity, fruits were
harvested when the tendrils were dried up. The fruits were cut
open and allowed to rot for easy extraction of seeds, as
recommended 8.
Data were taken at 6 weeks, 10 weeks and at maturity with a
meter rule or counting the characters as required. The following
parameters were determined: number of leaves per plant, leaf area,
number of branches per plant, length of vine, days to flowering,
days to fruit formation from flowering and internode length. At
harvesting, the following yield parameters were measured: weight
of fruits per plant, number of fruits per plant, circumference of
fruits and number of seeds per fruits.
The data were subjected to analysis of variance and means were
separated using LSD test. The ratio of male to female flowers was
calculated 14, 15, 17 for each growth regulator.
Results
Effect of different concentrations of IAA and BAP (at 6 weeks)
on C. ficifolia: The effects of different concentrations of IAA
and BAP at 6 weeks on C. ficifolia are presented in Table 1. The
results show that the concentrations did not differ significantly
(P>0.05) from each other for number of branches per plant. BAP
100 and 150 mg l-1 produced significantly (P<0.05) smaller leaves
than the other concentrations. IAA 100 mg l-1 was found to produce
significantly (p<0.05) larger leaves, longer internodes, longer vines
and more leaves than the other doses.
Response of C. ficifolia (at 10 weeks and at maturity) to IAA
and BAP: The responses of C. ficifolia at 10 weeks and at maturity
to IAA and BAP are presented in Tables 2 and 3. Table 2 represents
the agronomic features at 10 weeks. No significant differences
(P>0.05) were observed among the different concentrations of the
growth regulators for days to flowering, number of male flowers
and number of branches per plant. IAA 100 mg l-1 significantly
(P<0.05) increased internode length, leaf area, vine length, number
of leaves and number of female flowers compared with effect of
other concentrations used (Tables 2 and 3).
Yield parameters (number of fruits per plant, circumference and
weight of fruits) were higher in IAA 100 mg l-1 (Table 3). The
control (0 mg l-1) took fewer days to form fruits whereas BAP 100
and 150 mg l-1 took relatively more days (Table 3).
There were significant interactions between the hormones and
concentrations for all the characters studied. BAP 50 mg l-1 was
sufficient to produce the highest number of branches per plant
whereas IAA was needed 150 mg l-1 (Fig. 1). While 100 mg l-1 of
BAP produced the smallest number of fruits per plant, the same
concentration of IAA gave the highest number of fruits per plant
Fig. 2.
212
Sex expression: The ratios of male to female flowers at 10 weeks
and at maturity are presented in Table 4. At 10 weeks, IAA
100 mg l-1 induced the production of more male flowers than the
other treatments, while IAA 150 mg l-1 produced more female
flowers. BAP 50 mg l-1 produced more of both male and female
flowers than the other BAP concentrations (Table 4). At maturity
IAA 100 mg l-1 produced more male than female flowers while
BAP 50 mg l-1 produced more of both male and female flowers
(Table 4). IAA caused a lower ratio of male to female flowers than
BAP at 10 weeks and at maturity.
Discussion
The results presented in Tables 1 and 2 indicate that at 6 and
10 weeks the growth regulators had no effect on number of branches
per plant. This indicates that this character does not respond to
growth regulators at the early stages. At maturity, however, this
character was significantly affected by the two growth regulators.
The larger leaf area observed in IAA 100 mg l-1 may be an indication
that this character is positively affected by IAA. Increasing leaf
size is an important factor in C. ficifolia breeding, especially as
the leaves are eaten as vegetable and contain a good source of
protein and vitamins 18, 19. Therefore, it is suggested that IAA
100 mg l-1 could be used to spray C. ficifolia to improve this trait.
Bates et al. 11 demonstrated that increase in vine length in
cucurbits could increase the number of female flowers and hence
increase yield. In our study, IAA increased vine length, indicating
that IAA enhances stem elongation and yield in C. ficifolia. Similar
results were found also by Thomas 20 who attributed the increased
plant height in Abelmoschus esculentus exposed to IAA to
enhanced stem elongation.
Significant (P<0.05) differences were recorded among the
different concentrations of growth regulators for number of days
to fruit formation from flowering (Table 3). Plants sprayed with the
growth regulators took more days to form fruits than the control,
indicating that the hormones delay fruit formation and possibly
senescence. Higher fruit yield, larger fruits and higher weight of
fruits obtained in IAA 100 mg l-1 indicate that this could be the
optimum concentration for C. ficifolia. This is further supported
by the decrease in number and weight of fruits by IAA 150 mg l-1.
In BAP, optimum yields were obtained in 50 mg l-1 though this was
not higher than the control. As the concentrations of the hormone
increased above the optimum level there was significant reduction
in yield supporting other reports 21-24.
The significant (P<0.05) effect of the hormones recorded for
number of female flowers (Tables 2 and 3) is an indication that
IAA induces formation of female flowers. One could therefore
suggest that IAA was more effective in inhibiting male flowers
and increasing the number of female flowers than BAP. This
probably accounted for the low ratio of male to female flowers in
IAA and a high ratio of male to female flowers in BAP (Table 4)
confirming results of other authors 13,14 on muskmelon and summer
squash respectively.
Significant interactions observed in our study suggest that the
effect of the hormones is dependent upon the concentration. This
was further confirmed by the observation that application of the
regulators at doses higher than the optimum resulted in significant
decreases in the parameters studied or optimal concentration of
the hormone used depends on the trait in question as well as the
specific hormone used.
Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment, Vol.5 (2), April 2007
 Table 1. Morphological features of C. ficifolia (at six weeks) as affected by different concentrations of IAA and BAP.
Concentration of hormones LSD
Character 0 mg l-1 IAA 50 m gl-1 IAA 100 mgl-1 IAA 150 mg l-1 BAP 50 mg l-1 BAP 100 mg l-1 BAP 150 mg l-1 5%
Internode length (cm) 4.55c ± 0.5146 7.33d± 1.76 8.5e ± 2.50 3.3b ± 1.20 4.4c ± 0.678 2.43a ± 0.825 1.67a ± 0.44 0.81
Leaf area (cm) 169.54d ± 10.68 156.65c ± 31.64 334.7e ± 59.14 117.03b ± 30.26 109.56b ± 12.62 62.39a ± 10.99 61.33a ± 7.51 10.11
Nӑ. of branches/ plant 2.17a ± 0.207 3a ± 0.577 3.5a ± 0.50 2a ± 0.577 2.6a ± 0.509 2a ± 0.408 2a ± 0.577 NS
Nӑ of leaves/plant 15.83b ± 2.613 18.67c ± 2.91 30.5d ± 2.50 15.33b ± 5.61 14.8b ± 4.25 11.5a ± 2.46 13.67ab ± 2.33 2.21
Vine length (cm) 23.67b ± 6.43 42.33c ± 10.27 48d ±11.43 24.67b ± 7.35 22ab ± 4.61 21.25a ± 4.03 19ab ± 5.91 4.20
Means* followed with the same case letter in a given horizontal array indicate no significant difference (P>0.05).

Table 2. Growth characteristics of C. ficifolia (at 10 weeks) exposed to different concentrations of IAA and BAP.

Concentration of regulators LSD

Character 0 mg l-1 IAA 50 mgl-1 IAA 100 mgl-1 IAA 150 mgl-1 BAP 50 mgl-1 BAP 100 mgl-1 BAP 150 mgl-1 at 5%1
Internode length (cm) 8.6b ± 0.01 10.25c ± 0.35 14.6d ± 1.29 8.4b ± 0.24 7.67b ± 1.86 5.5a ± 0.50 4.65a ± 0.35 1.41
Leaf area (cm) 217.16b ± 10.03 327.2d ± 20.44 347.75e ± 34.99 265.16c ± 19.87 264.77c ± 27.15 120.38a ±11.50 125.12a ± 17.12 20.11
Nӑ of branches/plant 3a ± 0.10 4a ± 0.482 4.2a ± 0.734 4.4a ± 0.748 4a ± 0.577 4.1a ± 0.10 4a ± 0.12 NS
Nӑ of leaves/ plant 40b ± 3.21 43.5b ± 6.74 79.6d ± 8.33 61.6c ± 8.22 60.67c ± 6.35 40b ± 3.0 34a ± 1.0 50.51
Vine length 100b ± 6.01 117.75c ± 15.55 131.2d ± 19.40 112.6bc ± 9.40 114c ± 10.94 43a ± 5.21 32.5a ± 6.50 13.01
Days of flowering 52a ± 1.11 46.25a ± 2.17 50.8a ± 2.49 50.2a ± 1.58 49.33a ± 2.33 50.5a ± 2.50 54a ± 3.00 NS
Nӑ of male flowers 24a ± 3.12 26.25a ± 4.67 242a ± 2.59 26.8a ± 2.25 25a ± 2.25 21.5a ± 2.53 28a ± 3.76 NS
Nӑ of female flowers 3a ± 0.24 6bc ± 0.91 6.4c ± 1.03 6bc ± 1.30 5b ± 1.51 3.5a ± 0.25 3.6a ± 0.67 1.22
Means* followed with the same case letter in a given horizontal array indicate no significant difference (P>0.05).

Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment, Vol.5 (2), April 2007

Table 3. Agronomic features of C. ficifolia (at maturity) exposed to different concentrations of IAA and BAP.
Concentration of hormones LSD
Character 0 mg l-1 IAA 50 mgl-1 IAA 100 mgl-1 IAA 150 mgl-1 BAP 50 mgl-1 BAP 100 mgl-1 BAP 150 mgl-1 5%
Internode length (cm) 6.41cd ± 0.92 7.88cd ± 0.94 7.5d ± 0.97 7.13cd ± 0.67 6.25c ± 0.80 4.15b ± 0.21 2.91a ± 0.101 1.12
Leaf area (cm) 154.29b ± 17.03 252.35d ± 38.85 276.02e± 44.46 209.61c ± 37.98 167.77b± 43.07 62.30a ± 16.58 54.21a ± 14.36 20.34
Nӑ of branches per plant 2ab ± 0.18 3.13bc ± 0.345 3.5c ± 0.50 3.75c ± 0.67 4c ± 0.76 2.13ab ± 0.52 1.75a ± 0.52 1.21
Nӑ of leaves per plant 33.88b ± 4.68 63.38c ± 10.13 85d ± 10.99 63.63c ± 12.88 57c ± 12.13 28.38a ± 9.69 27.75a ± 9.69 10.42
Vine length 88.65bc ± 22.74 216.13d ± 43.95 236.63d± 41.45 132.75c ± 29.37 112.75c ±27.57 64.38ab ± 24.58 36.25a ± 11.44 28.25
Nӑ of male flowers per plant 10a ± 2.32 23c ± 3.38 20c ± 3.80 26.75d ± 5.51 21.38c ± 5.49 12.75b ± 3.43 9.63a ± 5.04 2.12
Nӑ of female flowers 1.88a ± 0.32 4.13bc ± 0.76 4.88d ± 0.84 4.13bc ± 1.16 3.63b ± 1.03 1.4a ± 0.29 1.25a ± 0.35 0.651
Days to fruit formation from flowering 1.88a ± 1.29 3.13b ± 1.17 3.5bc ± 1.27 4.75d ± 0.97 4.25cd ± 0.94 5.25d ± 0.61 5.13e ± 1.13 1.02
Nӑ of fruits per plant 1.33a ± 0.13 1.75ab ± 0.17 4.57e ± 0.28 2.8d ± 0.53 2.33cd ± 0.20 1.67a ± 0.20 2bc ± 0.50 0.56
Weight of fruit per plant (g) 611.67bc± 63.56 676.25d ± 87.51 838.43d ± 1.32 570.83b ± 55.50 641.67cd ± 53.75 344.33b ± 25.34 222.5a ± 74.75 55.67
Average circumference of fruit (cm) 31b ± 1.79 36.5c ± 1.46 45.33d ± 1.32 35.33c ± 1.31 32b ± 2.76 29.67b ± 0.20 23.4a ± 3.2 3.31
Nӑ of seeds per plant 140c ± 22.40 178.5d ± 29.65 146.29c±37.01 87.33b ± 8.07 101.33b ± 34.18 89.67b ± 7.86 55.5a ± 23.75 15.82
Means* followed with the same case letter in a given horizontal array indicate no significant difference (P>0.05).

Table 4. Ratio of male to female flowers in C. ficifolia at different stages of growth.

Stage of Hormone Concentration of growth regulator Total flowers Ratio
growth 0 mg l-1 50 mg l-1 100 mg l-1 150 mg l-1 male female m/f
M F M F M F M F
At 10 weeks IAA 5.1 0.9 9.9 2.4 18.8 2.6 11.9 3.5 45.7 9.4 4.9
BAP 5.1 0.9 11.4 2.4 2.9 0.4 1.5 0.0 2.09 3.7 5.6
At maturity IAA 111.4 2.1 26.3 4.7 33.1 5.6 26.8 4.1 97.6 16.5 5.92
BAP 111.4 2.1 21.4 3.6 20.4 2.2 15.4 2 68.6 9.9 6.93
M = Male flowers, F = Female flowers.

213
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214 Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment, Vol.5 (2), April 2007

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