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In the Pacific Central region of Mexico, 17,000 ha are cultivated with cucurbitaceous crops. Most are affected with wilt caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. melonis. The use of fungicides, such as methyl bromide, for soil disinfecting is a common practice; however, this practice has adverse effects on beneficial microorganisms, and soil is rapidly infected again. Soil solarization is a sustainable alternative, and it is feasible to be integrated in production systems. It has been used to delay the establishment of symptoms and to reduce the incidence of fusarium wilt in watermelon fields. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of soil solarization and methyl bromide on control of fusarium wilt on cantaloupes in western Mexico. The experiment was conducted in the Ranch Fatima located in the municipality of Colima. Severe wilt incidence and damage were previously observed in the cantaloupe cultivar Impac. Dripping irrigation system was used. Treatments established were: 1) solarization; 2) solarization + vermicompost; 3) solarization + chemical products [methyl bromide + chloropicrine (98/2%)]; 4) methyl bromide; and 5) control (without solarization or chemicals). Soil solarization was done during the 6 months before planting using clear plastic mulching (110 thick). A completely randomized design with five treatments and four replications was used. Six beds, 10 m long and 1.5 m wide, were used as experimental unit. Variables registered were: leaf area, leaf number, dry and fresh weight, propagule number, soil temperature, number of diseased plants showing wilt symptoms, and yield. Treatments 1 and 3 exhibited the highest agronomic variable values, and best control of fusarium wilt and fruit yields.

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Cantaloupe (Cucumis melo Var. reticulatus, Naudin) were evaluated during development and then fresh-cuts were stored after preparation from various maturities to track quality changes during storage. Flowers were anthesis tagged one morning and developing fruit were harvested weekly at 13, 20, 27–28, and 34–35 days after anthesis (DAA). Mature fruit were harvested at 37–38 DAA with five distinct maturities: 1/4-, 1/2-, 3/4-slip, full-slip and over-ripe. Hunter L* and a* color values indicated change from pale green to light orange that occurred after 28 DAA. There were significant decreases in L*, a* and b* by day 9 in storage as fresh-cuts. After 28 DAA, sucrose dramatically increased, and this was positively correlated with increases in both total sugars (r = 0.882, P = 0.084) and °Brix (r = 0.939, P = 0.041). Gradual subjective deterioration occurred during storage, which was independent of maturity. There was a negative linear trend over the length of storage in hand-held firmness for each maturity level and the slopes decreased significantly with increasing maturity; indicating the effect of storage duration decreased as maturity increased. Vitamin C had a significant increasing trend (P-value = 0.042) during development from 12 through 35 DAA, then losses were greater in fresh-cuts prepared from full-slip fruit (65%) than in less mature fruits, quarter-slip 40%, half-slip 48%, and three quarter-slip 50%. The pH of mesocarp tissue dropped to the lowest value (5.25) just prior to physiological maturity, then peaked after harvest (6.51–6.79), and generally declined by the end of freshcut storage. In sum, considering other publications on this study, and herein, fruit should be harvested at greater than or equal to 1/2-slip to attain optimum quality and storability.

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The present study was performed to characterize the physiological responses of cantaloupe [Cucumismelo (L.) var. reticulates`Athena'] fruit harvested at preripe (1/4 slip), half-slip, and full-slip stages of development and treated with 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) prior to storage at 13 or 15 °C. Cantaloupe fruit (1/4 to full-slip stage) were treated with 1-MCP (0.01 and 1 μL·L-1) for 18 hours at 20 °C and then stored at 15 °C (pre-ripe fruit) or 13 °C (half- and full-slip fruit). The firmness of pre-ripe `Athena' fruit was significantly retained in response to 1 μL·L-1 1-MCP, but did not differ greatly from control fruit in response to 0.01 μL·L-1 1-MCP. Control fruit reached an edible condition (≈70 N) after 6 days of storage at 15 °C and persisted until day 12 (50 N), whereas 1 μL·L-1 1-MCP-treated fruit reached an edible stage after 17 days and persisted through 21 days (over 60 N). Fruit treated with 1-MCP exhibited slightly (0.01 μL·L-1) or dramatically (1 μL·L-1) lower electrolyte leakage throughout storage. 1-MCP (1 μL·L-1) significantly suppressed ethylene production and respiratory rates of pre-ripe cantaloupe during storage at 15 °C. Firmness retention was also highly significant for cantaloupe harvested and treated with 1-MCP (1 μL·L-1) at the half-slip and full-slip stages of development. 1-MCP treatment had a significant effect at reducing decay incidence and the occurrence of depressed or sunken regions of the fruit surface.

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-MCP) for maintaining texture quality of fresh-cut tomato HortScience 39 1359 1362 Jeong, J. Lee, J. Huber, D.J. 2007 Softening and ripening of ‘Athena’ cantaloupe ( Cucumis melo L. var. reticulatus

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Nonomura and Benson (1992) reported that foliar applications of dilute solutions of methanol caused growth and yield increases and reduced water use in several crops. The request from commercial growers for explicit information regarding this report prompted our experiments using the same procedures. Growth of cantaloupe, pepper, cabbage, cauliflower and onion seedlings and mature plants were evaluated in the laboratory and greenhouse in 1993 and in the field in 1993 and 1994. Treatments of 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, or 40% methanol (v/v water) with 0.1% surfactant generally did not cause significant growth differences. Stem diameters or lengths, shoot fresh and dry weights, or root fresh and dry weights of seedlings were unaffected as a result of methanol treatment. In the field, cabbage head weight was slightly higher after methanol application only in 1993, whereas cantaloupe fruit weight and number were significantly lower in 1993, but not in 1994.

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‘MAK-10’ is a new breeding line derived from a collection of introgression lines (ILs) developed from the cross between the Japanese cultivar ‘Ginsen makuwa’ PI 420176 ( Cucumis melo Group Makuwa) and the French cantaloupe variety ‘Vedrantais’ ( C

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muskmelon is used for both netted muskmelons (cantaloupes) ( C. melo subsp. melo var. cantalupo ) and honeydew melons ( C. melo subsp. melo var. inodorus ) ( USDA-NAL, 2017 ). Netted muskmelons in the United States market are primarily orange fleshed

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) and muskmelon (also called cantaloupe or melon) ( Cucumis melo ). Records show that nearly two billion pounds of muskmelons were produced in the United States in 2008 with a market value of $371 million ( USDA, NASS, 2009 ). Pest and disease pressures

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Development of resistance to chemical pesticides has been reported in about 150 plant pathogenic species, mostly fungi. Biocontrol of plant pathogens is an alternative to chemical pesticides. Actually, there are products formulated with beneficial microorganisms, such as mycorrhizal fungi, rhizobacteria, antagonistic fungi, and others. The objective was to evaluate the development of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. melonis (FOM) on melon plants inoculated with commercial biological formulations based on beneficial microorganisms. Twelve treatments were evaluated: T1) VAM media nursery + FOM; T2) Hortic Plus + FOM; T3) BioPak F + FOM; T4) Glomus intraradices + FOM; T5) FOM; T6) control; T7) VAM media nursery; T8) Hortic Plus; T9) BioPak F; T10) Glomus intraradices; T11) FOM + Mancozeb wp80; and T12) FOM + BioPak F. The melon cultivar used was `Colima' (Peto Seed Co.). Seeds were planted in Styrofoam growing containers containing coconut fiber powder as substrate. One seed was planted per cell and maintained until transplanting. Plants were transplanted to pots containing sterile soils 13 days postemergence. Inoculation of treatments with Fusarium was made with a concentrated suspension at 1 × 106 conidia/mL. For inoculation with beneficial microorganisms, manufacturer specifications were followed. A completely randomized design with 12 treatments and 12 replications was used to estimate the incidence of Fusarium, number of leaves, leaf area, root biomass, and percentage of roots colonized by mycorrhizal fungi. Overall, T10 showed the best behavior in all variables. Inoculation of cantaloupe plants with Fusarium affected their performance, but those treatments including mycorrhizal fungi enhanced their performance withstanding the damage by Fusarium.

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Melon wilt (MW) is one of the main diseases affecting the cucurbitaceous crops in the Pacific Central region of Mexico. The use of resistant varieties is the most effective strategy to reduce the damage caused by MW; however, variety performance depends on the fungal race occurring in the field. The use of fungicides, such as benzimidazols and methyl bromide, is a common practice, but there are contamination concerns, and a search is on for alternatives to diminish the negative effects on the agro-ecosystem. The aim was to determine the effect of the application of soil amendments and mulching on the incidence of MW, and on melon yield. Soil amendments incorporated were: rice straw (3 t·ha-1); compost 1, prepared with chicken and bovine manure, and banana and orange wastes (5.7 t·ha-1); compost 2, prepared with bovine and horse manure, coconut wastes and grasses (8 t·ha-1), vermicompost (3 t·ha-1), and a control. All treatments were established using transparent mulching during 21 days. The number of MW propagules in amended soils were similar at 5, 10, and 20 cm deep, but the percentage of diseased plants was higher (4.5%) in the control, which could be caused by the incidence of other fungi propagules, perhaps antagonistic, that contributed in diminishing the MW when compared with the control. The fruit weights and fruit sizes were not different between treatments on small (21–30 sizes), medium (15–18 sizes), and large (9–12 sizes), but total fruit numbers were 1.15-, 1.07-, 0.99-, and 1.09-fold higher when compared with the control. The application of soil amendments affected the antagonistic fungal populations even when it did not affect the cantaloupe yield. We suggest that soil amendments will improve soil fertility and increase melon yields, and studies are currently running.

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