Journal of Plant Stress Physiology 2023, 9: 44-47 doi: 10.25081/jpsp.2023.v9.8697 https://updatepublishing.com/journal/index.php/jpsp 44 J Plant Stress Physiol • 2023 • Vol 9 INTRODUCTION Locally, the sponge gourd (Luffa cylindrica) is referred to as Kalitori. The plant is classified under the family Cucurbitaceae and is commonly referred to as angled gourd or angled loofah. Luffa is a monoecious viny vegetable and contains 2n=26 chromosomes (Zohura et al., 2013). The fruits of L. cylindrica are smooth and cylindrical shaped. The fibers consist of 60% cellulose, 30% hemicellulose, and 10% lignin (Mazali & Alves, 2005). L. cylindrica is a subtropical plant that, when cultivated in temperate regions, requires warm summer temperatures and an extended frost-free growing season. It produces a fruit with a fibrous vascular system and is an annual ascending plant. It is a summer season vegetable (Oboh & Aluyor, 2009). L. cylinderica fruits are green, and large cylindrical in shape that is crawled on other materials (Partap et al., 2012). According to a nutritionist, sponge gourd is an essential component of human nourishment. The daily requirement of an adult’s total food is 284 g per head which is around 20% (Solangi et al., 2009). Nitrogen is a crucial nutrient that contributes to the development of the canopy and the rich green colour of the crop (Hashan et al., 2023). The successful production of crops is dependent on the efficient utilization of nitrogen. Nitrogen is also a major element of nucleic acid, co-enzymes, and membranes, and it is involved in many metabolic processes, viz., cell division, photosynthesis, protein synthesis, and the expansion of shoot and root growth in plants. It also has an active role during vegetative growth (Leghari et al., 2014). Notably, given the significant importance of nitrogen on plant growth and productivity, the present study was conducted to determine the response of the sponge gourd to applied nitrogen fertilizer on growth, development, and yield. MATERIALS AND METHODS Study Area The experiment was conducted at the farmer’s field in Nowpara village, Trishal upazila, Mymensingh during the period from 28 May 2023. Geographically the experimental site is located Growth and yield performance of Sponge Gourd (Luffa cylindrica) under different doses of nitrogen fertilizer Riad Mahmud*, Faria Naznin, Farhana Binte Quyyum Bristy, Tasnova Tasin, Sohel Rana, Rafat Nur Abdullah Khan, Kawsar Hossen Department of Agriculture, Faculty of Science, Noakhali Science and Technology University, Noakhali-3814, Bangladesh ABSTRACT An experiment was carried out at a farmer’s field in Nowpara village, Trishal upazila, Mymensingh from 3 rd May 2023 to 15 th September 2023 to find out the effects of nitrogen (urea) fertilizers on the growth and yield performance of sponge gourd. The field experiment was arranged using a randomized complete block design with local variety Fujian F 1 with four treatments and three replications viz. (Urea) T 1 : Control (0 kg N/ha), T 2: 25 kg N/ha, T 3: 50 kg/ha, T 4: 75 kg N/ha were used for the present study with three replications. In treatment T 4 , the tallest sponge gourd plant was 123.5 cm, while in treatment T 3 , it measured 112.5 cm. For treatment T 1 , the smallest plant measured 61.33 cm. In terms of leaf numbers, treatment T 4 had the greatest number of leaves 63 while treatment T 1 had the lowest number of leaves 30. The highest diameter of the leaf measured was 13.05 cm in T 4 and the lowest diameter found was 6.8 cm in T 1 . Out of the four treatments, treatment T 4 had the tallest leaves, measuring 12.73 cm, followed by treatment T 3 , which had leaves measuring 9.7 cm. In T 1 and T 2 , the smallest leaf lengths were found to be 6.7 and 7.8 cm, respectively. The tallest length of the petiole found was 7.8 cm in T 4 and the smallest length of the petiole recorded was 5.5 cm for the treatment T 1 . The longest fruit measured from T 4 was 28.33 cm, while the tiniest fruit came from T 1 and measured 18.6 cm. The treatment T 4 had the highest fruit weight, measuring 227 g, while treatment T 3 had a weight of 176 g. The minimum weight was 93 g found in T 1 . Treatment T 2 has shown the weight of the fruit those were 134 g. KEYWORDS: Luffa cylindrica, Nitrogen, Growth and yield Copyright: © The authors. This article is open access and licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, or format for any purpose, even commercially provided the work is properly cited. Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. Research Article ISSN: 2455-0477 Received: October 25, 2023 Revised: December 27, 2023 Accepted: December 28, 2023 Published: December 31, 2023 *Corresponding author: Riad Mahmud Email: riadmahmud2016@gmail. com