Effect of cultivars and irrigation periods on some growth and yield indicators for watermelon

Abstract

The experiment was conducted in a special field in Al-Radwaniya region, southwest of Baghdad, for the season of 2016 to study the effect of two cultivars of watermelon (King and Charleston), which it is symbolized by (V1, V2), respectively, and irrigation period (5, 10 and 15 days), which it is symbolized by (W1, W2, W3), respectively, in some vegetative growth and yield indicators. The seeds were cultivated on 12 March 2016 and the soil addition (N, P2O5, and K2O) were used with a ratio of (120: 160: 100 kg.ha-1). The area of experimental unit amounted to (12.5 m2) (2.5 m length x 5 m width). The Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) were applied in three replicates and the amount of water was calculated for each of the treatments (5, 10, 15 days) using the water requirements for the crop which amounted to (600 mm) during the season. The results showed that King cultivar was excelled in all vegetative and yield traits, the irrigation period (5 days) gave a significant increase to the same traits of the study. As for the interaction treatment between King cultivar and the irrigation period (5 days) (V1W1) gave a significant increase in the traits of the study, where gave the highest value for the plant length (3.79 m), the number of main branches (6.70 branches.plant-1), the number of leaves (776.0 leaves.plant-1), the dry weight of the total vegetative (416.0 g.plant-1), the number of fruits (2.25 fruit.plant-1), the average weight of the fruit (5.36 kg.fruit-1), Plant yield (12.07 kg.plant-1), and the total yield (96.53 tons.ha-1).