Investigation of Sunburn in Watermelon Cultivars with Different Ground Color under Irrigation and Rainfed Conditions

Farmers have started to experience significant global production losses in watermelon, as in many crops, because of the increase in global warming. A research using striped watermelon, ungrafted Crimson Tide grafted on Nun9075 and Paskal hybrid cultivars with dark green ground color, ungrafted and grafted on Gürdal, was conducted in 2018 and 2019 to research sunburn in watermelon in the open field. It was determined as the harvest time when the atria and leeches were dry. At harvest time, samples were taken and stored. Following these dates, one-half of the experiment received irrigation, while the other half was rainfed and continued for an additional month. Harvests were made in each plot a month later, and the sunburn rates in each plot were assessed using the 1–5 scale we developed. The Paskal variety, whose bark ground color was black in both years, had the sunburn start earlier, and after one month, there were almost no marketable fruits on the plants left in both irrigated and rainfed conditions. The burn scale rates was high in ungrafted cultivars, but increased in rainfed cultivars. There was not much difference between the grafted and ungrafted varieties in terms of Soluble Solids Content (SSC) and Titratable Acidity (TA) (%). It is recommended to use grafted seedlings and to continue irrigation in places where sunburn may occur. However, creating favorable conditions for strong vine growth that shades the watermelon fruit is the best way to avoid sunburn damage.

Investigation of Sunburn in Watermelon Cultivars with Different Ground Color under Irrigation and Rainfed Conditions Keywords:

Citrullus lanatus , Crimson Tide variety , Grafted watermelon , Postharvest watermelon , Sunburn.