Performance of Bitter Gourd under Industrial Effluent Irrigation Using Matric Suction Irrigation Technique

Water is an important natural resource, but due to industrialization and agricultural activities, there has beencontamination of water resources. With the rise in the global population and climatic changes, there has been a
need for sustainable water use in agriculture. Thus, reuse of treated industrial wastewater for irrigation purposes
has become imperative. The current study was carried out to determine the effect of treated paper board industry effluent in various concentrations mixed with rainwater on the growth, yield, and quality attributes of bitter gourd grown using
soilless culture technique. In the study, there were five treatments consisting of rainwater irrigation (T₁), 25%
effluent concentration (T₂), 50% effluent concentration (T₃), 75% effluent concentration (T₄), and 100% effluent
concentration (T₅).
All the treatments were replicated five times, and each received equal fertigation dose of 100:25:25 g N:P₂O₅:
K₂O. Results obtained from observations such as vine length, nodes per plant, leaf area, leaf area index, vine dry
weight, root dry weight, fruit dry weight, and total dry weight showed no significant difference between the
treatments. Quality attributes of bitter gourd fruits also revealed minor variations, which were not statistically
significant. This implies that treated paperboard industrial effluents may be used as an additional irrigation
source for growing bitter gourd without any harm to the yield. Nonetheless, there is a need for further studies to
determine proper effluent concentrations as well as their impact on crop production.