Abstract
This study was carried out to determine the effect of vine and fruit pruning on watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) yield. Five pruning methods: P1=no pruning at all, P2=pruning to four vines with two fruits per vine, P3=pruning to four vines with one fruit per vine, P4=pruning to three vines with two fruits per vine and P5=pruning to three vines with one fruit per vine were evaluated on two watermelon cultivars: ‘Sugar baby’ and ‘Julie F1’ under a factorial randomized complete block design with three replications. Investigations were carried out in the seasons 2017A (short rains) and 2017B (long rains) at Karama and Rubona experimental sites belonging to Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board. The obtained results indicated a significant difference among the different cultivars and pruning methods tested during both seasons and at two sites. Generally, all studied parameters recorded higher values during season 2017B than in season 2017A at Rubona site. A similar trend was recorded at Karama site except that the fruit yield per plant and per hectare for plants which were pruned to three vines with one fruit reduced during season 2017B as compared to season 2017A. The highest number of fruits per plant, fruit weight, fruit yield per plant and per hectare was recorded in ‘Julie F1’ compared to ‘Sugar baby’ at both sites and during both seasons. Higher fruit weight was obtained when both cultivars were pruned to three or four vines with one fruit per vine. Higher number of fruits per plant and higher fruit yield per plant was observed under pruning to four vines with two fruits per vine at Rubona site; while at Karama site, higher fruit yield per plant was recorded under pruning to three vines with one fruit or two fruits per vines and pruning to four vines with two fruits per vine. A similar trend was observed in fruit yield per hectare. Based on results of the current study, cultivation of the hybrid ‘Julie F1’ and pruning to three vines with one fruit per vine is recommended for optimum watermelon yield with big-sized fruits.
Highlights
Watermelon is a crop belonging to the Cucurbitaceae family that has gained a great economic importance due to its delicious fruits that are rich in various nutritional compounds (Kong et al, 2017)
The highest number of fruit per plant (4.14.8 fruits per plant) at Karama site was recorded when both watermelon cultivars were pruned to four vines with two fruits per vine (Table 1)
A similar trend was observed at Rubona where both watermelon cultivars were pruned to four vines with two fruits per vine record ed the highest number of fruits per plant (4.85.0) (Table 2)
Summary
Watermelon is a crop belonging to the Cucurbitaceae family that has gained a great economic importance due to its delicious fruits that are rich in various nutritional compounds (Kong et al, 2017). The yield gap of 13 t ha1 compared to the world’s yield can be addressed by improving production practices, includ ing regulation of number of vines and fruits per plant (Oga and Umekwe, 2016; Dube et al, 2020). Watermelon is a crop with vines on which female flowers appear after about every five male flowers (Dube et al, 2020). The num ber of vines per plant is an important parameter determining the performance of Cucurbitaceae crops, including watermelon (Gomes et al, 2019). The number of fruits per vine is an important parameter that determines fruit size, mass and yield (Lins et al, 2013). Regula tion of number of vines per plant and fruits per vine can be achieved through different methods including vine and fruit pruning (Campos et al, 2019)
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