Kinnaur district is known as the dry temperate zone of Himachal Pradesh and is known for off season and quality production of vegetables.In this district of Himachal Pradesh, Natural farming is mostly done with the minimum use of chemical fertilizers. Farmers are unaware of the judicious use of farm yard manure, and biofertilizers due to which yield of the french bean is very low (50-70 q/ha). French bean is one of the most important vegetables intercropped with apple in Kinnaur District. An experiment was conducted during the summer season of 2011 at the Experimental Farm of Vegetable Research Station, Kalpa, Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh to study the effect of Rhizobium and Phosphorus Solublizing Bacteria (PSB) on the horticultural and yield traits in french bean var. Contender. Six treatments comprising seed treatments (with and without Rhizobium), seed treatment (with and without PSB) along with the combination of 60 % dose of recommended quantity of Calcium Ammonium Nitrate and 75 % dose of recommended quantity of Single Super Phosphate and organic matter were evaluated in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The results revealed that T5 treatment, i.e. Rhizobium+ PSB+ Organic matter resulted in more number of pods per plant (20), pod length (18 cm) and pod yield/ha (140 q/ha) .

Identification and development of new varieties of bell pepper adapted to Spiti valley of Himachal Pradesh is very important because farmers are cultivating off-season pea on commercial scale but are ignorant about the production technology of bell pepper or Shimla Mirch (Capsicum annuum L.) cultivation under low polytunnels.The present investigations were undertaken at Regional Horticultural Research Sub-station, Tabo, Spiti, Himachal Pradesh which is located at an elevation of 3280 m (10760 ft.) above mean sea level.Highest fruit yield per plant was observed in SP-701 (1350 g) which showed statistical superiority among all the genotypes understudy.Hence, SP-701 can be recommended to the farmers for getting high yield in Tabo valley.High heritability coupled with high genetic gain were observed for average fruit weight, fruit yield /plant and fruit length which indicated the presence of additive gene action and thus, offers more scope for reliable and effective selection.It can be concluded from the study of the correlation that fruit yield per plant can be improved by improving the number of fruits per plant, average fruit weight, plant height and fruit breadth in bell pepper.

Genetic variability and association studies involving 15 diverse Pea genotypes were carried out in the year 2010-11 at RHRSS, Tabo, Lahaul & Spiti, a dry temperate zone of Himachal Pradesh. The results concluded that highest pod yield per plant was recorded in Punjab-89 which can replace the existing Azad P-1 variety. Phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation were moderate in magnitude for most of the traits. High heritability coupled with high genetic gain were observed for plant height, pod length, number of grains per pod, shelling percentage and number of pods per plant which indicated the presence of additive gene action and thus offers more scope for reliable and effective selection. A significant positive association of pod yield was observed with number of pods per plant, pod length, pod width and number of grains per pod. Therefore, these traits may be considered as the most reliable selection indices for effective improvement in green pod yield in garden pea.

Investigations were carried out revealed that the height of bell pepper plants were significantly increased (75.53 cm) with the application of borax (T 3 ). Maximum number of branches per plant (5.60) were obtained with mixture of zinc sulphate, borax, copper sulphate and manganese sulphate followed by borax (5.30). The minimum number of days (28.90 days) to flower was recorded by the spray of borax. The maximum time to marketable fruits were taken by application of copper sulphate (118.70 days), borax (107.50 days) and combined foliar application of borax and copper sulphate (105 days). Harvest duration of fruits was maximum (84.00 days) with combined spray of zinc sulphate, borax, copper sulphate and manganese sulphate. Maximum number of fruits per plant (9.50) was produced with the application of borax. The maximum fruit length (6.50 cm) and width (5.82 cm) was recorded with the application of mixture of micronutrients i.e. zinc sulphate, borax, copper sulphate and manganese sulphate. The highest yield per plant (558.50 g), maximum fruit yield (8.93 kg) per plot and maximum fruit yield (167.50 q/ha) of bell pepper was recorded by the application of borax (T 3 ) closely followed by mixture of zinc sulphate, borax, copper sulphate and manganese sulphate.