Influence of Seed and Fruit Characteristics of <i>Lagenaria siceraria</i> on Production and Quality of Grafted Watermelon
2022
Angel Manuel Suárez-Hernández | Onecimo Grimaldo-Juárez | Carlos Ceceña-Durán | Juan Carlos Vázquez-Angulo | Laura Dennisse Carrazco-Peña | Leonel Avendaño-Reyes | Carlos Enrique Ail-Catzim | Ulin Antobelli Basilio-Cortes | Azareel Angulo-Castro
The use of <i>Lagenaria siceraria</i> rootstocks in watermelon production has favored fruit yield and quality under conditions of environmental stress. However, it is necessary to know if the differential characteristics of fruit and seed <i>L. siceraria</i> are related to watermelon yield and fruit in grafted plant. The objective was to evaluate two dissimilar groups of Mexican <i>L. siceraria</i> as rootstock in Tri-X 33 watermelon variety to relationship the morphological characteristics of rootstock with productive variables and fruit quality. The treatments were Tri-X 313 variety ungrafted and grafted with accessions of group 1 (L46 and L56) and group 2 (L48, L50 and L54). Variables evaluated were fruit and yield and quality parameters. No differences were found between groups of <i>L. siceraria</i> in fruit yield and external quality parameters. With the exception of pulp firmness and luminosity, LG1 surpassed group LG2 by 30.7 and 5.0%, respectively. While, when comparing grafted and ungrafted plants, it was found that grafted plants were superior, with increases of 277.8% in number of fruits per m<sup>2</sup>, 330.2% in commercial production, 54.6% in rind thickness, 85.2% in external firmness and 36.3% in chroma value of fruit pulp. Meanwhile, pulp percentage and hue were reduced by 13.8% and 15.5%, respectively, in grafted watermelons. Thus, the seed and fruit characteristics are not sufficient criteria to select <i>L. siceraria</i> rootstocks for watermelon production.
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