Effect of Plant Spacing and Apical Shoot Pinching on Growth and Productivity of Watermelon Plants Under Sandy Soil Conditions

Abstract

The present work was carried out in Private Vegetable Farm at El-Heez, Al-Wahaat Al-Baharyia District, Giza Governorate, Egypt, during two successive summer seasons of 2016 and 2017, to study the effect of plant spacing and apical shoot pinching (ASP) stage on growth and productivity of watermelon plants under sandy soil conditions using drip irrigation system. Results showed that, the interaction between plant spacing at 30 cm and ASP at the 6 th node gave the tallest plants, whereas the interaction between plant spacing at 60 cm and ASP at the 6 th node gave the highest values for each of number of leaves and branches/plant at 45 days after planting. On the other side, planting watermelon at 45 cm and ASP at the 6 th node increased average number of fruits/ plant, average fruit weight, yield/plant and total yield/faddan.

Variation in Shoot, Peduncle and Fruit Growth of Lagenaria siceraria Landraces

“…The common initiation of Lagenaria siceraria shoot harvest at 42 days after sowing (DAS), except for BG-19 harvested at 49 DAS ( Table 2 ), can be related to the variation in the shoot growth rate among landraces. The delayed formation of harvestable shoots in landrace BG-19 was probably caused by the production of a high auxin concentration, which inhibits the formation of lateral branches by acting in the biosynthesis pathway of strigolactones and cytokinins phytohormones, which have an antagonistic effect on shoots and tertiary growth in vegetative traits [ 25 , 26 ].…”

“…As a result, an increase in photosynthetic activity enhances shoot length and biomass [ 32 ]. Lagenaria siceraria landraces with early and frequent shoot harvests have productivity attributes that are ideal in agriculture because they enable researchers and farmers to select high-yielding genotypes and ensure market availability and sustainability [ 26 , 27 ].…”

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“…Oga; Umekwe (2016) estudando espaçamentos bem menores verificaram para o espaçamento de 50 x 60 cm maior número de frutos por hectare em comparação aos espaçamentos de 50 x 40 cm e 50 x 50 cm. Ban et al (2011) verificaram em media 8.176 frutos no espaçamento de 1,0 m entre linhas e 4,311 no espaçamento de 2,5 m. De forma geral, quando se aumenta a densidade populacional verifica-se um incremento também no número de frutos com redução no número de frutos por planta. Assim nesse contexto, se obtem maior produtividade em menores espaçamentos entre plantas pelo maior numero de frutos por área.…”

Effect of vine and fruit pruning on yield attributes of two watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) cultivars

“…There were ten plots in each replication; and each plot received a treatment combination of cultivar and pruning method. Watermelon seedlings for each cultivar were raised in biodegradable pots and transplanted 30 days after sowing at a spacing of 3 m x 2 m. Pruning was achieved by pinching the apical shoot of watermelon vine after six nodes, about 18 days after transplanting (Anwar et al, 2019). Then, at 15 days after pinching, four vines were maintained for P2 and P3 treatments while three vines were maintained for P4 and P5.…”

“…This leads to improved yield with enhancement in features required by consumers, such as fruit size and appear ance (Oga and Umekwe, 2016). The main purpose of pruning is to promote balance between vegetative growth and fruit load (Anwar et al, 2019). Pruning has been reported to increase yield of cucumber (Nayak et al, 2018) andbutternut (Eve et al, 2016).…”