Effect of different irrigation levels onto plant development, yield and quality of grafted and no grafted watermelons under Cukurova conditions

ABSTRACTPh.D. THESISEFFECT OF DIFFERENT IRRIGATION LEVELS ONTO PLANT DEVELOPMENT, YIELD AND QUALITY OF GRAFTED AND NO GRAFTED WATERMELONS UNDER ÇUKUROVA CONDITIONSSelçuk ÖZMENDEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL STRUCTURES AND IRRIGATION INSTITUTE OF NATURAL AND APPLIED SCIENCES UNIVERSITY OF ÇUKUROVASupervisor: Prof. Dr. Rıza KANBERYear: 2009, Pages: 115Jury: Prof. Dr. Rıza KANBERProf. Dr. Bülent ÖZEKİCİProf. Dr. Sermet ÖNDERProf. Dr. Nebahat SARIAssoc. Prof. Mustafa ÜNLÜThis study was conducted at the experimental field of the Department of Agricultural Structures and Irrigation, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Çukurova between 2006 and 2008.In this study, the effect of grafting on the yield, plant growing and fruit quality of watermelon which is grown using deficit irrigation approach was investigated under Çukurova conditions. In the experiment, different irrigation (I100, full irrigation; I70, deficit irrigation; I50, full deficit irrigation) and grafting (grafted, Crimson Tide+Jumbo-CTJ; control, no grafted, Crimson Tide-CT) treatments were used. The experiment was designed as Strip Block design with three replications. Irrigation was started during the branching development stage of watermelon plants using drip irrigation once or twice (3 and 4 days intervals) per week and, then terminated between four and eleven days before the harvest.In the experiment, irrigation water (IW) amount and seasonal evapotranspiration (ET) among treatments varied between 135.9-413.5 mm (12-16 events) and 311.3-520.6 mm, respectively. The highest IW with 413.5 mm and seasonal ET with 520.6 mm were obtained from CTJI100 in 2006. The highest monthly average ET was 214 mm for I100 in May; average reference ET was 163.1 mm in this month for watermelon. Crop coefficient (Kc) values for initial, mid-season and late-season stages ranged 0.24-0.67, 0.87-1.66 and 0.83-0.93, respectively. There was no significant effect (p>0.05) of irrigation level on yield, fruit quality and plant development. Grafting effected (p?0.05) significantly yield and development, but had little effect on fruit quality. The highest yields were obtained from I100 with 16.90 kg per plant and CTJ with 19.32 kg per plant in 2008.Keywords: Drip Irrigation, Evapotranspiration, Grafted Watermelon, Plant Development, Fruit Quality