MORPHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL AND VINE DEVELOPMENT, FLOWERING AND SEX EXPRESSION OF WATERMELON PLANTS GROWN..

Although a few studies on low-tech greenhouses (LTG) for growing horticultural crops have been undertaken in Bangladesh, the production of watermelon in the winter season has yet to be examined. As a result, from late autumn to early winter in 2015/2016, a study was done to assess the production potentials of four watermelon varieties: Sonya, Black Dorin, Badsha, and Dragon. Three LTGs were erected, one for each replication, with four pits prepared under each LTG and four watermelon kinds grown individually in separate pits. The temperature difference between the LTG and those outside was greater in the middle of the day, with maximum differences in air and soil temperatures of 9 and 2 degrees Celsius, respectively, around noon. Due to the high temperature, phenological development such as days to first leaf, first vine, and first male flower emergence was accelerated by 2, 9 and 8 days, respectively. Plants grown with LTG had much greater vine growth in terms of quantity and length of vines, vine diameter, node number and internode length, leaf size, and so on, than plants grown outside. Low-tech plants generated narrower leaves (i.e., more specific leaf area) than those found outside, indicating that the leaf lamina expanded rapidly in response to the high temperatures. The increased vine growth under LTG can be attributed to higher photosynthetic and transpiration rates (up to 3.5 times higher than outside) as a result of the high temperature. However, with LTG, excessive vine growth inhibited the development of female flowers, despite the abundance of male flower output. As a result, it has been determined that watermelon fruit cannot be grown in the winter (off-season) using a low-tech greenhouse without applying further scientific procedures to ensure the female flowers blossom.

Please see the link :- https://www.ikprress.org/index.php/JOGEE/article/view/7250