New technologies of cultivation of watermelon as a key to development of the melon industry

Relevance. The appearance on the market of water-soluble fertilizers, growth regulators, biological products requires a detailed study of these drugs to determine their effectiveness in increasing yields and optimizing costs. Therefore, the issue of developing environmentally friendly elements of the technology for growing varieties of table watermelon of different ripening periods with the use of new types and forms of water-soluble fertilizers becomes urgent.
Materials and methods. The object of research is varieties of watermelon of domestic selection of early and medium ripening. The studies were carried out in 2018-2020 on the basis of the Bikovskaya cucurbits breeding experimental station (Bykovskiy district, Volgograd region). The methods of using the preparation Potassium Humate (liquid) were studied: Treatment of plants twice, Soaking the seeds before sowing. The passage of the main periods of plant growth and development, biometric parameters of plants, biochemical composition of fruits and productivity of table watermelon were determined. The purpose of the research: to determine the effectiveness of methods of using potassium humate (liquid) in increasing yields, to reveal their influence on the quality of table watermelon fruits of different ripening periods.
Results. The experimental data obtained showed a fairly high efficiency of the use of humic fertilizer in the cultivation of table watermelon both in early-maturing varieties and in varieties of late ripening. The maximum yield of the late-ripening watermelon variety Ikar was obtained when using the preparation Potassium Humate for treating plants – 17.1 t/ha, which is 25.7% more than control. The same method of using the humic preparation was noted as the most promising in the early ripening variety of watermelon Triumph, where the yield exceeded the control values by 21.8% and the method of use was by 18.0% – soaking the seeds before sowing. Studies have determined that the use of the preparation Potassium Humate in the technology of growing table watermelon allows to obtain fruits of good quality with a content of nitrates significantly lower than the maximum permissible concentrations for this culture (MPC – 60 mg/kg).

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