Desempenho agronômico de genótipos de melancia

Abstract

Brazil is the fourth largest producer of watermelon in the world, with the Northeast region being the largest producer of watermelon, with emphasis on the states of Rio Grande do Norte, Bahia and Pernambuco, despite having ideal conditions for the cultivation of watermelon, the region still has few cultivars developed for their agroclimatic conditions. Given the importance of this culture for the region, the objective of this work was to analyze the agronomic performance of watermelon genotypes. The experiment, was carried out at Embrapa Semiárido, in Petrolina-PE, and twelve genotypes from the Embrapa Semiárido Plant Improvement Program were analyzed, in addition to the commercial Manchester® hybrid used as control, totaling thirteen genotypes. The experimental design used was in randomized blocks, with four replications and plots composed of eight plants. The evaluations carried out were the verification od the beginning female flowering (FF), number of total fruits (NTF), total productivity (PDT), fruit mass (MF), diameter fruit (DF), fruit length (CF), flesh firmness (FP) and soluble solids (SS). Among the evaluated genotypes the L1xL3 and L3xL1 hybrids were the most precocious, presenting, respectively, 35.3 and 34.0 days for the anthesis of the first pistil flower. Being also superior to the control in number of fruits, having a lower result only for the fruit mass variable, while the hybrids L1xL2 and L2xL1 had the same performance as the commercial hybrid for all evaluated variables. These genotypes showed satisfactory agronomic performance, promising a future market launch.