Standardisation of fertigation and evaluation of chitosan on biochemical and morphological characters of seedless watermelon [Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum & Nakai]
Abstract
The experiment was conducted for standardising fertigation and evaluating biostimulant effect of chitosan on biochemical and morphological characters of triploid seedless watermelon hybrid Shonima with four levels of fertigation as mainplot treatments and foliar application of chitosan as subplot treatments. The findings revealed that the fertigation dosage of 100% RDF was the best in terms of fruit and yield characters and lycopene content, 125% RDF in terms of vine length, 50% RDF in terms of earliness in emergence of first male flower and total sugar and 75% RDF in terms of TSS where as 0.1% chitosan was found to be the best for yield and biochemical characters among three concentrations. Fertigation dosage of 100% RDF along with 0.1% chitosan spray was found to be the best treatment combination in terms of equatorial diameter of fruit, polar diameter of fruit, average fruit weight, marketable yield/plant (8.06 kg/plant), lycopene content and BC ratio (2.02).75% RDF along with foliar spray of 0.1% chitosan was best treatment for TSS and reducing sugar and 50% RDF with 0.1% chitosan spray was best for total sugar content. The crop duration was reduced during the summer season and recommended fertigation dose for Shonima was found to be 43.75:31.25:75kg NPK/ha.
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