Title : Impact of grafting on bio morphological and economically valuable particularities of watermelon
Abstract:
Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) cv. in Armenia is an economically valuable crop with high customer demand. Its planted area was 4,525 hectares in 2022. In Armavir Marz, where watermelon cultivation is concentrated, farmers often suffer from the instability of plants to various biotic and abiotic factors, which leads to wilting of plants or a decrease in yield. Grafting is one of the effective and environmentally friendly methods for increasing plant yield and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses? The purpose of our study was to identify the characteristics of the growth, development, and yield of grafted watermelon plants. Watermelon hybrids F1 (ES75077, ES75095, ES75111, ES75126, ES75127, ES75169, ES75171) used as scion were grafted onto pumpkin rootstock ES101 from the Ergon seed company collection. Grafting was done in Scientific Centre of Vegetable and Technical Crops, in greenhouse conditions by method of tongue approach. Scion seeds were sown on 8 of April and 5 days later were sown the seeds of rootstock. They were placed in germination room and kept in under the following condition: 24OC day and night, humidity 90%. On the third day, we took it out of the germination room and let then to grow in the greenhouse for 10 days, after which we grafted. After grafting again 4 days they were put in germination room and kept under the same
Conditions: Plants were planted in v. Gribaedov in farmers plot, 1000 sq.m. Common technology for watermelon cultivation was used. The highest vegetative growth and fruit yield were obtained by of rootstock. Compared to non- grafted plants productivity of all grafted variants increased from 70%-97%. Most of all was increased in variant ES75127-96% and ES75171 -98%. Increased yield was caused mainly by higher average fruit weight. The higher yield of fruit from grafted watermelon plants was most likely an effect of the vigorous root system of the rootstock. It is also believed to be due to enhanced water and mineral uptake. Fruit mid mass of grafted plants fruits varies from 8 kg up to 14 kg. With big fruits from 10kg to 14kg separated variants ES75095, ES750171, ES74077, other samples mass varied from 7kg up to 9kg. Grafting significantly increased dry matter content in fruits of all grafted plants from 5%-8%, sugar content 10-12% over the non-grafted plants. Compared to non-grafted variants vegetation period was prolonged from 15 to 25 days.
