Welcome to Chinese Agricultural Science Bulletin,

Chinese Agricultural Science Bulletin ›› 2023, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (10): 38-44.doi: 10.11924/j.issn.1000-6850.casb2022-0423

Special Issue: 园艺

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Effects of Substrate Cultivation Modes on Greenhouse Watermelon Growth, Yield and Quality

CHEN Liang(), LUAN Qianqian, LIN Yi, ZHANG Ziqiang   

  1. Gansu Provincial Institute of Agricultural Engineering and Technology, Wuwei, Gansu 733006
  • Received:2022-05-26 Revised:2022-11-15 Online:2023-04-05 Published:2023-03-27

Abstract:

To screen the most suitable Chinese medicine residue compound substrate cultivation mode for watermelon in greenhouse, in this study, main small-fruit watermelon varieties planted in greenhouse were used as the test materials. Five cultivation modes were adopted, including pit cultivation (T1), substrate bag cultivation (T2), substrate pillow cultivation (T3), aboveground trough cultivation (T4) and underground trough cultivation (T5), to explore the effects of different substrate cultivation modes on the growth, yield and quality of watermelon in greenhouse. The results showed that in the flowering and fruit setting stage, compared with those of T3, the plant height, internode length, number of leaves, SPAD value, net photosynthetic rate (Pn) and intercellular CO2 concentration (Ci) of T4 significantly increased by 60.81%, 20.63%, 25.49%, 13.77%, 6.34% and 8.56%, respectively; while the stomatal conductance (Gs) and transpiration rate (Tr) of T3 increased significantly by 65.71% and 14.99%, respectively, compared with those of T4. In the fruit enlargement stage, the plant height, stem diameter and number of leaves of T4 increased significantly by 86.75%, 22.42% and 16.79%, respectively, compared with those of T3. At the maturity stage, the plant height, stem diameter, internode length, number of leaves, fresh weight of aboveground part, fresh weight of underground part, dry weight of aboveground part, dry weight of underground part, and fruit yield of T4 reached the maximum value, and were significantly higher than those of T3. The content of center sugar and edge sugar were the highest in T3, the center sugar content was significantly higher than that of other treatments, and the edge sugar content was significantly higher than that of T1, T4 and T5 treatments. In summary, the five cultivation modes can all be used for the production and cultivation of watermelon in greenhouse, but the aboveground trough cultivation mode is more conducive to promoting the growth and development of watermelon and increasing the fruit yield, and the watermelon growth is the best and the fruit yield is the highest. The substrate pillow cultivation mode is beneficial to increasing the sugar content of fruit, and the watermelon fruit quality is the best.

Key words: greenhouse watermelon, traditional Chinese medicine residue compound substrate, plant growth, photosynthetic characteristics, yield and quality