Effect of irrigation and fertilization methods on yield and fruit quality of film-mulched watermelon in greenhouse

Abstract

To probe appropriate methods of irrigation and fertilization for film-mulched watermelon in greenhouse, an experiment was conducted with 3 treatments to compare the growth, the use of irrigation water and fertilizers, fruit yield and quality of watermelon. These 3 treaments were border irrigation & water-flush fertilization(BF), drip fertigation(DF) and micro-sprinkling hose fetigation(MF). The results showed that (1) DF and MF treatments accelerated the growth of seedling during the stage of Fruit setting and harvest end compared with BF treatment; (2) DF and MF treatments used much less irrigation water and fertilizers amount and keeped high yield, then increased WUE by 65.41% and 61.63%, raised PEPN by 45.43% and 42.10%, respectively; (3) moreover,the quality of watermelon fruit was improved with greatly increased content of Vc and soluble sugar.