Botanical Name: Cucurbita moschata
Varieties:
Ambili: Medium sized flat round fruits with yellow flesh, with an average weight of 4-6 kg. High yielding variety.
Suvarna:High yielding. Small round fruits with average weight of 3.5 kg. Flesh is dark orange in colour.
Arka Sooryamukhi:Small round fruits with pressed ends. Individual fruit has an average weight of 1kg. Rind is orange red. Resistant to fruit flies.
Saras: Compact medium sized variety with a peculiar oblong shape and attractive orange flesh.
Sooraj:
Climate & Soil: Warm humid climate.It requires a deep well drained loamy soil.
Season: January-March, September-December and May- August.Sowing the crop in October can prevent mosaic to a certain level.
Seed rate: 1-1.5 kg/ha
Seeds available with VFPCK: Ambili
Spacing: Pits of 60 cm diameter and 30-45 cm depth are taken at a spacing of 4.5 x 2.0 m.Four of five seeds are sown per pit. Remove unhealthy plants after 2 weeks and retain three plants per pit.
Nutrient management : Apply FYM @ 20-25 t/ha as basal dose along with half dose of N (35 kg) and full dose of P2O5 (25 kg) and K2O (25 kg). The remaining dose of N (35 kg) can be applied in two equal split doses at the time of vining and at the time of full blooming.
Crop Management: For trailing, spread dried twigs on the ground. Irrigation and weeding should be done whenever necessary.
Pest Management :

• Fruit fly : Adult flies puncture the fruits with the ovipositor and insert the eggs inside the fruits. Maggots feed on the fruits which get rotten . Bait traps with carbofuran granules, Malathion 50 EC (2ml per litre).Field sanitation.
• Epilachna beetle : Both adult and grubs scrape the leaf lamina and skeletanise the leaves. Malathion 50 EC (2 ml per litre), mechanical control
• American serpentine leaf miner : Eats away the chlorophyll of the leaves leaving snake like white scars. Neem oil emulsion at 2.5%.
• Pumpkin beetle : Adults feed on the leaves and grubs bore the roots. Apply neem cake,Soil drenching - Ekalux (2ml/l)

Disease Management :

• Downy mildew : Yellow spots on the upper surface and water soaked fungal spots on the lower surface of leaves. Dithane M.45 ( 4g/l), Field sanitation.
• Powdery mildew : Ashy spots on the leaves and stem. Bavistin (4g/l), Field sanitation.
• Mosaic : Yellow and green mottled appearance. Control the vector insects- White flies, jassids, Field sanitation.

Yield: 20 - 25 t/ha.