Response of physical dimension changes and fruit quality of Khatouni melon to chemical fertilizer application

Fazeli Kakhki, Seyyed Fazel; Goldani, Morteza; Riahinia, Shahram

doi:10.22034/jelsa.2025.476361.1084

Response of physical dimension changes and fruit quality of Khatouni melon to chemical fertilizer application

Document Type : Original research article

Authors

Seyyed Fazel Fazeli Kakhki ¹

Morteza Goldani ²

Shahram Riahinia ³

¹ Khorasan Razavi Agriculture and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, AREEO, Mashhad, Iran

² Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding of Agriculture College, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

³ Department of Agricultural Sciences and Engineering, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

10.22034/jelsa.2025.476361.1084

Abstract

To investigate the effect of commonly used chemical fertilizers on certain quantitative and qualitative characteristics of Khatouni melon ecotype, an experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design at the research farm of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. The treatments included: T1: control (no fertilizer applied), T2: nitrogen fertilizer from urea at a rate of 120 kg/ha, T3: phosphate fertilizer from triple superphosphate at a rate of 120 kg/ha, and T4: potassium fertilizer from potassium sulfate at a rate of 100 kg/ha. Results indicated that the use of potassium fertilizer led to a 17% increase in melon fruit length compared to the control. The application of fertilizers T2 and T3 resulted in a 14% and 15.5% increase in fruit length, respectively, compared to the control. The fruit lengths for treatments T2, T3, and T4 were 38 cm, 38.6 cm, and 39.3 cm, respectively. The highest middle diameter of the melon (14.5 cm) was obtained from treatment T3 and the lowest from treatment T1. The number of seeds per fruit was 649 in the control, with a 3% and 6% increase observed with T2 and T4 treatments, respectively. The highest and lowest flesh thickness were recorded from treatments T2 (3.66 cm) and T1 (3.00 cm), respectively. The highest (3.16 kg) and lowest (1.97 kg) fruit weights were obtained from treatments T4 and T1, respectively. Treatment T2 resulted in a 33% increase in fruit weight compared to the control. The highest positive and significant correlation was found between single fruit weight and fruit length (r=0.82*) and middle diameter (r=0.82*). The highest sugar content was observed in treatments T2 and T4.

Highlights

The study investigates the effects of different chemical fertilizers on the growth characteristics of the Khatouni melon ecotype.
The study identifies that applying chemical fertilizers, particularly potassium and nitrogen, significantly enhances the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of Khatouni melons.
The paper shows that the use of chemical fertilizers significantly improves both the growth and quality of Khatouni melons.
Overall, this article highlights the importance of macronutrient fertilizers (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) to maximize yield and quality and has an impact on improving the characteristics of Khatouni melon.

Keywords

Flesh Thickness

Fruit Length

Lobe Count

Seed Count

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