Pointed gourd (Trichosanthes dioica Roxb.) is a tropical perennial cucurbitaceous vegetable crop, commonly called as ‘Parval’. It has very high nutrient content as compared to other cucurbits. Protein content of pointed gourd is 10 times that of bottle gourd and 4 times that of snake gourd, ridge gourd and wax gourd. Pointed Gourd is cultivated in spring-summer and rainy season in Odisha’s weather condition but gives higher yield in spring-summer season. As most of the fruiting season falls under water scarcity period i.e., spring-summer judicious irrigation along with fertiliser application and mulching plays an important role in its yield attributing characters as well as post-harvest self-life. Hence, a field experiment was conducted to study the influence of fertigation doses and mulching on yield attributing characters and post-harvest shelf life of pointed gourd cultivation in red lateritic soils of Odisha. In the present study it is seen that application of different graded doses of N, P and K through fertigation in association with mulching increased the yield attributing characters and shelf life of pointed gourd. The results revealed that the maximum values for the yield attributing traits such as length of fruit (9.09 cm), single fruit weight (26.13 g), minimum number of days taken for 50% flowering (66.34) and post- harvest parameters such as duration of maximum retention of shelf life (15.2), percentage of marketable fruits (83.54) was recorded with the application of 100 percent N, P and K (RDF) through fertigation and mulching which remained at par with treatment where 80 percent N, P and K is applied through fertigation and mulching. Thus, 80% fertigation with mulch was the most effective treatment with 20% fertiliser saving and duration of retention of shelf life of fruit was extended 5.6 days more as compared to the control. Plastic mulch has been used in some treatments to warm the soil, conserve the moisture, control weed population, reduce leaching of nutrients, provide protection against soil pathogens and helped in increasing duration of maximum retention of self-life, percentage of marketable fruits and thus post-harvest shelf life of fruit.

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