| Author's Name: |
Habimana Sylvestre, Kamugisha Thierry & Nkurunziza Rene |
| Subject Area: |
Life Sciences |
| Subject |
Agricultural |
| Section |
Research Paper |
Keyword:
Watermelon, spacing, plastic, fruits, interaction.
Abstract
The field experiment was conducted on watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) variety sugarbaby at Rubilizi farm, Kigali city during season B of 2014. This experiment had to study the effect of different spacing levels and mulching on growth and yield of watermelon. Three different spacing (1mx1m, 1mx1.5m and 1mx2m) and types of mulch (straw mulch and plastic mulch) were used. All treatments were laid out in a Randomized Completely Block Design (RCBD) with nine treatments replicated thrice. Main vine length, number of lateral branches, number of leaves on the main vine, number of fruit per plant, fruit weight and total yield of watermelon at harvest were observed. The results of the experiment have shown significant difference (P<0.05). The interaction between the treatments indicated that spacing 1m x 2m and plastic mulch gave the highest yield (28.59 tha-1), the longest vine (208.3 cm), the highest number of lateral branches (4.67), the hihgest number of leaves per main vine (28.33), the highest fruit weight of 3.2 Kg. Therefore, based on these results, it is hereby recommended that the use of wider spacing of 1m x 2m under plastic mulch should be adopted by the farmers for a profitable watermelon production in Rubilizi farm area.