Evaluation of new watermelon and melon varieties
It has been completed the evaluation of new watermelon and melon varieties for the period of spring 2012 as well as the new rootstocks for both species .
The trials are made ,one under tunnel for the extra early part of the season and two in the open field using mini tunnels.
In total we evaluated 100 varieties and rootstocks using blocks with 5 replications.
The measurements are taken in the field. Some of the characteristics evaluated are:
- Earliness
- Total production and quality classification ( Class 1 & 2)
- Brix
- Rind thickness
- Color of the external stripes (RGB)
- Shape
- Flesh texture
- Flesh color (RGB)
Especially for the rootstock/scion evaluation in watermelons and melons the evaluation includes :
- impact on the canopy size
- impact on earliness
- impact on shape
- impact on sugar content
- impact on the flesh texture
- impact on resistance in powdery mildew ( EPPO)
- Resistance to nematodes (Bridge & Page 1980)
- Evaluation of the compatibility rootstock/scion (% abortion)
Here we should note that from our experience all the previous year the influence of the rootstock to the scion, leads to quite different characteristics of each variety to be grafted. Some times the difference in the agronomic behavior of the scion variety is that big, that seems to be a variety different than it really is.