In-row Diploid Watermelon Pollenizer Competition with Triploid Watermelon Based on Four Planting Ratios

摘要

Diploid watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) pollenizers are planted within triploid watermelon fields to provide viable pollen for triploid fruit set. In recent years, pollenizer cultivars with desirable characteristics for planting in-row with triploid watermelons have been commercially available. The degree of plant competition from in-row pollenizers grown in the commercially common arrangement where pollenizers are placed equidistant from neighboring triploid plants has not been reported. Field experiments were conducted in 2005, 2006, and 2007 in Quincy, FL, to examine the competitive impact of in-row pollenizers grown equidistant from neighboring triploid plants. Four ratios of pollenizers-to-triploids: 1:1, 1:2, 1:3, and 1:4 were used to provide various levels of pollenizer competition. No significant difference in yield based on the weight or number of fruit per triploid plant resulted from the varied pollenizer ratios. Therefore, pollenizers grown in-row at an equidistant spacing from the neighboring triploid plants had no competitive impact on the yield of the triploid watermelon crop.