uring the 1999 and 2000 growing seasons in Illinois, studies were conducted to determine the influence of two pollinizers (‘Crimson Sweet’ and ‘Fiesta’) and three pollinizer frequencies (11, 20, and 33 percent) on ‘Millionaire’ seedless watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) quality and yields.
More large-sized [>16 lb (7.2 kg)] ‘Millionaire’ watermelons were produced when ‘Crimson Sweet’ was used as the pollinizer, compared to ‘Fiesta’, which resulted in ‘Crimson Sweet’ leading to greater marketable and total ‘Millionaire’ yields.
Pollinizers responded similarly over the pollinizer frequencies for ‘Millionaire’ watermelon yields, as no pollinizer by pollinizer frequency interaction was observed. The 20 percent and 33 percent pollinizer frequencies produced similar ‘Millionaire’ yields per acre, and both resulted in greater yields compared to the 11 percent pollinizer frequency.
Soluble solids in ‘Millionaire’ fruits were not influenced by pollinizer or pollinizer frequency. However, hollow-heart disorder followed a quadratic response with respect to pollinizer frequency, with the lowest amount of hollow-heart observed at the 33 percent pollinizer frequency and greatest at the 11 percent pollinizer frequency. No significant interaction (P < 0.05) was observed for pollinizer by pollinizer frequency for hollow-heart disorder in ‘Millionaire’, although more hollow-heart disorder in ‘Millionaire’ was observed when ‘Fiesta’ was used as the pollinizer.
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Figure 1. Pollinizer to seedless design as set up under field conditions.
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