Assessment of vegetable purpose watermelon [(Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum and Nakai] genotypes collected from laterite belt of eastern India

Abstract

Twenty vegetable purpose watermelon landraces, popularly known as ‘Khero’, were collected locally and evaluated for yield and various other traits under Red and Laterite Zone of West Bengal. This is the first experimental report on vegetable purpose watermelon from Eastern India. The result revealed the presence of significant variation among the genotypes for all the studied traits. Maximum vine length was observed in VC-13, VC-17 and VC-1, whereas VC-12 produced maximum branch number per plant. VC-1 identified as early type for days to first male and female flower opening. VC-11 was noted for maximum average fruit weight, while VC-12 produced highest number of fruits and fruit yield per plant. Correlation study revealed the positive association between fruit yield per plant and branch number, number of fruits per plant and rind thickness of immature fruit of vegetable purpose watermelon.