EFFECT OF WATERMELON PROPAGATION BY CUTTINGS ON VEGETATIVE GROWTH, YIELD AND FRUIT QUALITY

Abstract

Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is an important vegetable crop grown in Egypt. Seedless watermelon hybrids are preferred by most consumers because of their sweet taste and lack of hard seeds. The seedless watermelon (triploid hybrid watermelon) seeds are very expensive, do not germinate well and show least homogenous germination and growth. For these reasons, the present study aims to propagate seedless watermelon by cuttings to minimize the amounts of imported watermelon hybrid seeds in general and seedless watermelon in particular and reducing the cost of production and producing homogenous plants. Cutting is a method of asexual plant propagation widely used in horticulture. It is most commonly used for the propagation of trees and shrubs grown commercially. In vegetable crops cuttings are used on sweet potato and cassava as a commercial propagation method and cuttings can be used as a commercial propagation method in tomato, potato, eggplant, cucumber, melon and watermelon. The seedless watermelon cv. Yellow Buttercup QV 766 F1 (yellow flesh) and SSX 7402 F1 hybrid (red flesh)) and seeded watermelon cv. Aswan F1 hybrid were grown in plastic house for use as a source of cuttings (mother plants). Two types of cuttings were use, the first type was cuttings from terminal growing point of the main stem and lateral branches 10-15cm in length 0.45and 0.6 cm in diameter and the second type was cuttings including one node, bud and leaf. The study was conducted in three different experiments using randomized complete blocks design with three replicates during the seasons of 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 at a private farm in El-Badrashein City. Each hybrid was conducted in a single experiment. Each experiment included two types of cuttings treated with three concentrations (0, 100, 200 ppm) of IBA and planted in seedling trays or pots No.8cm. Twelve cutting treatments beside the control which was produced from true seeds were used in each experiment. The obtained results showed that shoot tip cuttings with any concentrations of IBA and planted in seedling trays or in pots treatments gave a lower survival percentage than cuttings including one node and treated with any concentration of IBA and planted in seedling trays or in pots. This may be due to the significant increment in number of roots in cutting treatments have one node compared with both cutting include shoot tip and control plants. All cutting treatments which included one node gave a higher survival percentage than the seeds germination in both seedless cv. Yellow Buttercup (QV 766) F1 and SSX 7402 F1 hybrid while, the highest seed germination were recorded in Aswan F1 in both seasons. All cutting treatments gave a significant increment in all vegetative characteristics after 45 days from transplanting and early yield compared with control. The number of days from transplanting to flowering showed significant decrease than the control. The plants from cuttings reached harvesting 15 days earlier than the control. No significant differences were recorded between all cutting treatments and the control plants in all vegetative growth, yield components and fruit characteristics. All cutting treatments gave a significant increase in early yield when compared with control plants.