the response of growth charechteristic cucurbita pepo var. rada to colored mulch and plant spacing

plastic mulches have been used in vegetable production in the most parts of the world. in order to evaluate the performance of the colored plastic mulch and different plant density on cucurbita pepo var. rada, an experiment was conducted in agriculture faculty of ferdowsi university of mashhad during the cultural seasons at 2010. the experiment was arranged in factorial experiment based on randomized complete design with four replications. treatments were mulch at three levels (blue, red and without mulch) and plant spacing at two levels (120 × 30 and 120 × 40 cm). the results indicated that reducing the planting distance (120 × 30 cm) significantly increased the fruit weight and yield. the highest numbers of harvest and fruit yield were found in the red mulch treatment. the fruit yield per plant was 5/36, 3/57 and 2/69 kg in the red, blue mulch and control, respectively.