Effect of plant spacing and apical shoot pinching on growth and productivity of watermelon plants under sandy soil conditions

Abstract EN

The present work was carried out in Private Vegetable Farm at El- Heez, Al-Wahaat
Al-Baharyia District, Giza Governorate, Egypt, during two successive summer seasons of 2016 and
2017, to study the effect of plant spacing and apical shoot pinching (ASP) stage on growth and
productivity of watermelon plants under sandy soil conditions using drip irrigation system.

Results
showed that, the interaction between plant spacing at 30 cm and ASP at the 6th node gave the tallest
plants, whereas the interaction between plant spacing at 60 cm and ASP at the 6th node gave the
highest values for each of number of leaves and branches/plant at 45 days after planting.

On the other
side, planting watermelon at 45 cm and ASP at the 6th node increased average number of fruits/ plant,
average fruit weight, yield/plant and total yield/faddan.