International Journal of Horticulture, 2026, Vol.16, No.4, 214-227 http://hortherbpublisher.com/index.php/ijh 220 Snowball 16 and Khumal Jyapu for cauliflower, Wonder Ball for cabbage). They received those seeds from agro vets, agro farm, retail shop and neighbours. Table 2 Major varieties of vegetable grown Vegetables Varieties Reported yield (t/ha) Planting time Harvesting time Tomato Srijana, Sarbashrestha 70-120 Feb-Mar (spring crop) Sept-Oct (autumn crop) May-July (spring) Dec-Feb (autumn) Cauliflower White Top 30-35 Sept-Oct Dec-Jan Cabbage Green Coronet 45-60 Sept-Oct Dec-Feb Cucumber Bhaktapur local 25-35 Feb-Mar (spring) Aug-Sept (autumn) Apr-Jun (spring) Oct-Nov (autumn) 3.3.4 Irrigation system and mulching practices From the study area, it was found that, the majority of the respondents i.e. 55% of them used drip irrigation system and 22% of the respondents used furrow irrigation system by channel for irrigation. 16% of the respondents used sprinkler irrigation and 7% of them used flooding system by pipe line for irrigation. Farmers flood their land through pipelines which supply the irrigation water from river, pond. Mulching was practiced by 70% of farmers, while the remaining 30% said they didn't (Figure 5; Figure 6). Straw, hay, tree leaves were some of the common materials used as organic mulch, while plastic mulch was a common material for non-organic mulching. Drip irrigation and mulching are common in protected vegetable cultivation because they maintain soil growth, controls weed growth and improve water use efficiency (Parte et al., 2022). Figure 5 Drip irrigation with mulching in tomato Figure 6 Drip irrigation without mulching in tomato
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