Abstract
Watermelon has been introduced recently as a significant cash crop in the Amhara region. As an emerging crop, the agronomic practices of watermelon have to be studied to maximize productivity. One aspect of this is determining the planting date of watermelon. Hence, field experiments were conducted under irrigation conditions at Metema district in 2021 and 2023. The experimental design used was a randomized complete block design with five sowing dates (December 15, January 1, January 15, February 1, and February 15), each replicated three times. Agronomic data were collected and subjected to analysis of variance, with significant treatment means distinguished using LSD at a 5% significance level. The findings indicated substantial variations (P < 0.05) among the sowing dates in terms of fruit length, diameter, average fruit weight, and marketable and total fruit yields per hectare. The highest total fruit yield (30.75 tons per hectare) was recorded from the January 1 sowing date, followed by 27.20 tons per hectare from the December 15 sowing date. Hence, planting watermelon between the second week of December and the first week of January is recommended for the Metema district and similar agro-ecological regions. Moreover, further research is required to determine the optimal nitrogen fertilizer rates and irrigation frequency to reduce the incidence of fruit cracking and enhance crop performance.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record; open copy licensed cc-by.
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Claims 5
Claim · model-written summary
Sowing date significantly affected fruit length, diameter and average fruit weight of watermelon (P < 0.05).
- Taxon
- Watermelon
Citrullus lanatust0 - Treatment
- sowing datese0
- Outcome
- fruit length, diameter, average fruit weighte0
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The findings indicated substantial variations (P < 0.05) among the sowing dates in terms of fruit length, diameter, average fruit weight, and marketable and total fruit yields per hectare”
t0“Watermelon”
Claim · model-written summary
Sowing date significantly affected marketable and total fruit yields per hectare of watermelon (P < 0.05).
- Taxon
- WatermelonCitrullus lanatust0
- Treatment
- sowing datese0
- Outcome
- marketable and total fruit yields per hectaree0
Not reportedComparatorDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The findings indicated substantial variations (P < 0.05) among the sowing dates in terms of fruit length, diameter, average fruit weight, and marketable and total fruit yields per hectare”
t0“Watermelon”
Claim · model-written summary
The highest total fruit yield of watermelon, 30.75 tons per hectare, was recorded from the January 1 sowing date.
- Taxon
- WatermelonCitrullus lanatust0
- Treatment
- January 1 sowing datee0
- Outcome
- total fruit yielde0
- Direction
- higheste0
- Value
- 30.75 tons per hectaree0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The highest total fruit yield (30.75 tons per hectare) was recorded from the January 1 sowing date”
t0“Watermelon”
Claim · model-written summary
The December 15 sowing date gave the second highest total fruit yield of watermelon, 27.20 tons per hectare.
- Taxon
- WatermelonCitrullus lanatust0
- Treatment
- December 15 sowing datee0
- Outcome
- total fruit yielde0
- Direction
- followed bye0
- Value
- 27.20 tons per hectaree0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The highest total fruit yield (30.75 tons per hectare) was recorded from the January 1 sowing date, followed by 27.20 tons per hectare from the December 15 sowing date”
t0“Watermelon”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors recommend planting watermelon between the second week of December and the first week of January for the Metema district and similar agro-ecological regions.
- Taxon
- watermelonCitrullus lanatuse0
- Outcome
- planting watermelon between the second week of December and the first week of Januarye0
- Setting
- Metema districte0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“planting watermelon between the second week of December and the first week of January is recommended for the Metema district”
The same questions in other papers
sowing time · yield · Citrullus lanatus (watermelon)Results agree
3 papers in the same direction as this paper
- positive
- positive
- positive
Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.