Heterosis on plant growth, yield and fruit characteristics in seedless mini watermelons

The aim of this presented thesis is to determine agronomic performance and the level of heterosis in one of the important vegetable species for our country, seedless watermelon cultivar candidates under low tunnels. In this study, 5 Fı hybrid triploid watermelon variety candidates (TR 5, TR 6, TR 9, TR 34 and TR-35) which are produced from 4 diploid female parents (ÇE-3, ÇE-4, ÇE-5 and ÇE-6) and two male parents (ÇE-1 and ÇE-2) were used. Commercial Style Fı seedless watermelon variety was added as a control material. In this study, date of main branching, first and 50% flowering dates, main stem lenght, main stem diameter, number of the nods on the main stem, total yield, fruit weight, fruit height, fruit diameter, fruit rind thickness, taste, TSSC analysis, number of seeds and the weight of 1000 seeds are determined. According to the results of the research; significant variations were determined among all investigated parameters and different level of heterosis was found for material having three ploidy levels.