Back

Watermelon(Citrullus lanatus (Thumb) ; Cucurbitaceae

Varieties

• Sugar Baby and Arka Manik.
• PKM 1 :
• Fruits are bigger in size with dark green skin and pink is red flesh. 
• It yields 36-38 t/ha in 122-135 days.

Hybrids
Arka Jyoti, Sonna and Suvarnima.
Soil

Sandy loam rich in organic matter with good drainage and pH range of 6.5-7.5

Season and Sowing

• Treat the seeds with Trichoderma viride @ 4 g or Pseudomonas fluorescens 10 g or
  Carbendazim 2g/kg of seed.
• Sow the seeds during November-December @ 3.5 kg/ha on one side of the channel with a spacing of 0.9 m between hills.
• Thin the seedlings 2 per hill 15 days after sowing.

Preparation of Field
Plough the field to a fine tilth and form long channels 2.5 m apart.
Irrigation
Irrigate the field before dibbling the seeds and thereafter once a week.
Application of Fertilizers

• Apply FYM 20 t/ha, P 55 kg and K 55 kg as basal and N 55 kg/ha 30 days after
  sowing.
• Apply Azospirillum and Phosphobacteria @ 2 kg/ha and Pseudomonoas @ 2.5kg/ha along with FYM 50 kg/ha and neem cake 100 kg/ha before last ploughing.

Nursery Preparation

• Nursery for watermelon can be prepared either with polythene bags of 200 gauge, 10 cm diameter and 15 cm height size or through protrays under protected nursery.
• In polybag nursery, fill the bags with 1:1:1 ratio of red soil, sand and farmyard manure mixture.
  Use protrays, each having 98 cells for raising seedlings.
• Transplant about 12 days old seedlings in the main field

Drip Irrigation

• Install drip system with main and sub-main pipes and place the inline lateral tubes at an interval of 1.5 m.
• Place the drippers in lateral tubes at an interval of 60 cm and 50 cm spacing with 4 LPH and 3.5 LPH capacities respectively.

Field Preparation
Raise beds of 1.2 m width and 30cm height for sowing
Planting

• Spread the lateral tubes in the centre of each bed.
• Irrigate the beds by operating the drip system continuously for 8-12 hrs.
• Spray pre-emergence herbicide (Pendimethalin @ 1kg a.i/ha) just before planting.
• Plant the seedlings in the holes made at 60 cm distance.

Fertigation

Apply a dose of 200:100:100 kg NPK/ha throughout the cropping period through split application

Fertigation Schedule

*75% RD of Phosphorus applied as superphosphate = 469kg/ha.
1. 19:19:19 = 53 kg/ha
2. 13:0:45 = 199kg/ha
3. 12:61:0 = 25 kg/ha
4. Urea = 351kg/ha

Nutritional Deficiency

After Cultivation
Spray ethrel 250 ppm (2.5 ml/10 l of water) 4 times at weekly intervals commencing
from 15 days after sowing. Hoe and weed thrice.
Diseases

1.Gummy Stem Blight: Mycosphaerella melonis

Symptoms

• Infected stems first appear water-soaked and then become dry, coarse and tan.
• Older stem lesions (dead tissue) reveal small black fruiting bodies (pycnidia) within the affected tissues.
• Large lesions girdle stems and plants wilt in the heat of the day.
• Stem lesions on melons exude a gummy, red-brown substance which may be mistaken for a symptom of Fusarium wilt.

Management

• Use of disease-free seed and transplants is essential to prevent serious crop losses.
• Periodic applications of fungicide like mancozeb @ 0.2% can help limit secondary infections, especially on fruits.
• Fall plowing and extended rotations with other crops can significantly reduce the amount of inoculum in infested fields.

2.Bacterial Wilt: Erwinia tracheiphila

Symptoms

• On cucumber and melon, generally a distinct flagging of lateral and individual leaves occurs. Affected leaves turn a dull green.

• When the beetles feed on young leaves or cotyledons, they open entry points for the pathogen.
• Once inside the plant, the bacteria travel quickly through the vascular system, causing blockages that in turn result in wilting of the leaves.

Management

• In general, more bacterial wilt is seen on the edges of fields where beetles first encounter plants.
• Larger plantings must be protected by insecticides.
• Carbaryl, Malathion, or rotenone insecticides or combination products are registered to treat cucumber beetles.
• They will provide control of the beetles if applied when beetles first appear in the spring.

3.Fusarium Wilt: Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. melonis 

Symptoms

• Wilting and chlorosis (yellowing) of older leaves.
• The wilt is most evident during the heat of the day.
• Plants may appear to recover by morning, only to wilt again in the afternoon.
• Stem cracks and brown streaks often appear near the crown of the plant and are associated with a red-brown exudate.
•  Vascular browning that is visible in stem cross-sections.

Management

• Planting resistant cultivars is the only reliable way to keep infested fields in production.
• Commercially acceptable resistant cultivars exist, but extremely high pathogen populations in the soil can overcome their resistance.
• Therefore, methods to reduce Fusarium populations in the soil also should be employed.

4.Anthracnose Colletotrichum orbiculare 

Symptoms

• The diagnostic features of anthracnose vary with the host.
• Sunken, elongated stem cankers are most prominent on muskmelon, though leaf and fruit lesions also occur.
• Watermelon foliage affected by anthracnose appears scorched; sunken fruit lesions are easy to recognize.

Management

• Seed treatment with Carbendazim 2g/kg of seed.
• Spray Mancozeb 2g or Carbendazim 0.5g/lit.

5.Sudden Wilt  

Symptoms

• Cucumbers and melons appear to be most sensitive to sudden wilt.
• Slight flagging of the plants in midday even when abundant moisture is present.
• This flagging will continue to worsen so that, by the third or fourth day, many of the plants are completely wilted.
• Affected plants appear to lack feeder roots; other roots become slightly misshapen and thick

Management

• Good soil drainage and thin plant density reduces the incidence of disease.
• Destroy diseased plant debris.
• Soil application of T.viride @ 2.5 kg/ha with 50 kg FYM.
• Spray Mancozeb/ Copper Oxychloride at 2.5 g /lit or Carbendazim/ Thiophanate-methyl at 1 g /lit.

6.Powdery mildew: Erysiphe cichoracearum

Symptoms

• It attacks muskmelons, squash, cucumbers, gourds, and pumpkins.
• Affected areas turn yellow then brown and die.
• Premature leaf drop and premature fruit ripening.
• Warm, dry weather conditions favor the development of powdery mildew.

Management

• Powdery mildew can be controlled by application of Wettable sulphur @ 0.2%.

7.Alternaria Blight: Alternaria cucumerina

Symptoms

• It usually occurs on foliage during the middle of the growing season.
• The disease starts as small, yellow spots which enlarge to form concentric rings on the upper leaf surfaces.
• The pathoegen also may cause fruit injury.
• Alternaria cucumerina may be carried in and on seed and can also overwinter in diseased plant debris or cucurbit weeds.
• Warm, wet weather favors development of Alternaria blight.

Management

• To control Alternaria blight, plant disease-free seed in fertile, well-drained soil, practice crop rotation with unrelated crops, destroy cucurbit weeds.
• Spray the crop with Mancozeb @ 2 g /lit.

8.Downy mildew: Pseudoperonospora cubensis

Symptoms

• It occurs on cucumbers, squash, muskmelons, and pumpkins and less frequently on watermelons.
• Yellowish areas occur on the upper leaf surface.
• Later a more brilliant yellow color develops with the center of the lesion turning brown.
• Yellow leaf spots may be angular to non-angular and turn brown to black.
• Spores produced on the lower leaf surface are readily spread by the wind. Rainy, humid weather favors the development of downy mildew.

Management

• Spraying with Metalaxyl 500 g or Metalaxyl + Mancozeb 1 kg/ha or Mancozeb 1 kg/ha.

Plant Protection- Pest

1.Fruit flies: Bactrocera cucurbitae

Management:

• Collect infested and fallen fruits and bum in deep pits.
• Use ribbed gourd as trap crop and apply carbaryl 0.15% or malathion 0.1% on congregating adult flies on the undersurface of leaves.
• Use attractants like citronella oil, eucalyptus oil, vinegar (acetic acid), and lactic acid to trap flies.
• Use poison baiting in severe infestation
• Mix methyl eugenol + malathion 50 EC at 1:1 ratio and keep 10 ml of the bait in polythene bags @ 25/ha.

2.Pumpkin beetles: Red Beetle: Aulacophora foveicollis

Symptoms of damage:

• Grubs feeds on the roots, stem and fruits touching the soil
• Adult feeds on leaf and flower

Management:

• Plough the fields just after harvesting destroy the hibernating adults
• Collect and destroy adult beetles
• Spray malathion 50 EC @ 500 ml or dimethoate 30 EC 500 ml or methyl demeton 25 EC@ 500 ml/ ha

3.Stem borer or clear winged moth: Melittia eurytion

Symptoms of damage:

• Larva bores into  the stem of snake gourd and produces galls

Management:

• Collect and destroy the damaged plant parts with larvae
• Encourage activity of parasitoid: Apanteles spp.
• Spray any following insecticides
  • malathion 50 EC @ 500 ml
  • dimethoate 30 EC 500 ml
  • methyl demeton 25 EC @ 500 ml/ ha

4.Stem gall fly: Neolasioptera falcata

Symptoms of damage:

• Maggots bore into the distal shoot and form galls

Management:

• Spray any following insecticides
  • Malathion 50 EC @ 500 ml
  • Dimethoate 30 EC 500 ml
  • Methyl demeton 25 EC @ 500 ml/ ha

5.Snake gourd semilooper: Plusia peponis

Symptoms of damage:

• The caterpillar cuts the edges  of  leaf lamina, folds it over the  leaf and feeds from within leaf roll

Management:

• Collect and destroy the caterpillars
• Encourage activity of Apanteles taragamae, A. plusiae
•  Spray any following insecticides
  • Malathion 50 EC @500 ml/ha
  • Dimethoate 30 EC @500 ml/ha
  • Methyl demeton 25 EC @500 ml/ha

6.Pumpkin caterpillar: Diaphania indica

Symptoms of damage:

• Young larva scrapes the cholorophyll content
• Later on it folds and webs the leaves and feeds within
• It also feeds on flowers and bores into developing fruits

Management:

• Collect and destroy early stage caterpillars
• Encourage activity of parasioid: Apanteles spp.
• Spray any following insecticides
  • Malathion 50 EC @500 ml/ha
  • Dimethoate 30 EC @500 ml/ha
  • Methyl demeton 25 EC @500 ml/ha

7.Bottle gourd plume moth: Sphenarches caffer

Yield

 Varieties : 25 – 30 t/ha in 120 days.
 Hybrids : 80-90 t/ha

Market Information

Crop Growing districts                                                  Kancheepuram, Villupuram, Thiruvallur
Major markets in Tamil Nadu                                     Coimbatore, Chennai Preferred Varieties and hybrids Mithila, Suganthi, Kiran, Simran,                                                                                                      Vishal
Grade Specification                                                      Symmetrical and uniform in appearance.
                                                                                          The surface should be waxy and bright in appearance devoid of scars, sunburn, transit                                                                                                    abrasions or other surface defects.