Abstract:

In order to determine whether “Guiyu” medium of raising seedling can be used as nursery media for watermelon. A greenhouse nursery and a field experiment were conducted comparing with the other two media in terms of seedling characters, fruit yield and TSS (total soluble solids) of watermelon in 2011. The result showed that the growth and economic traits indiced of “Guiyu” treatment were obvious higher than the others, including (1)stem diameter: “Guiyu” treatment was 3.26 mm before grafting, which was by 2.11% higher than “Shandong” and significant at 0.01 level by 12.03% higher than conventional treatment(CK), and Guiyu’s was 4.97 mm during transplanting which was still by 2.26% higher than “Shandong” and significant at 0.05 level by 9.23% higher than CK; (2)number of lateral branch root: the number of individual plant of “Guiyu”, “Shandong” and CK were 9, 8 and 7 respectively; (3)taproot length: Guiyu’s was 8.6 cm and longer than “Shandong” and CK by 0.7 cm and 1.0 cm respectively; (4)weight of single melon: Guiyu’s was 5.46 kg which was significant heavier than “Shandong” and CK by 5.60%; (5)fruit yield: Guiyu’s was 32825 kg/hm2 which increased by 6.06% and 11.08% than “Shandong” and CK respectively; (6)net income: Guiyu’s was 33390 yuan/hm2 and increased than “Shandong” and CK by 2295 yuan/hm2and 3855 yuan/hm2 respectively; (7)TSS: Guiyu’s was 11.8° and was not different with the others. Thus, “Guiyu” could be popularized in production, and stem diameter, taproot length and number of lateral branch root could be considered as referential indices to estimate the fruit yield after transplanting.