Abstract
The study aimed to enhance the sweetness and fruit quality of winter-grown watermelon by evaluating the effects of distinct pruning methods on growth, yield and physiological and biochemical characteristics. The treatments were control, single stem pruning, double-stem pruning and fruit thinning, which were investigated during 2 consecutive winter seasons under pot and field conditions. Single stem pruning at 35 days after sowing showed the most pronounced improvement among all the tested treatments. This treatment strongly enhanced TSS (9.28 °Brix in pot-grown plants and 8.82 °Brix in field-grown plants) and increased reducing, non-reducing and total sugars compared with the other treatments. Sweetness enhancement is coupled with increased chlorophyll content, enhanced antioxidant enzyme activities and higher accumulation of primary and secondary nutrients in the fruit pulp. Fruit thinning greatly improved external colour; however, single stem pruning was superior in enhancing the internal quality and overall marketability of the fruits. The results indicate that single stem pruning is an effective management practice for increasing sweetness, physiological performance and yield of winter-grown watermelon under off-season production conditions.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record; open copy licensed cc-by. Read at the source ↗
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Claims 9
Claim · model-written summary
Single stem pruning at 35 days gave 9.28 °Brix TSS in pot-grown fruit and was the strongest treatment.
- Taxon
- watermelon
Citrullus lanatust0 - Treatment
- Single stem pruning at 35 days after sowinge0
- Outcome
- TSSe0
- Direction
- enhancede0
- Value
- 9.28 °Brixe0
- Comparator
- all the tested treatmentse0
- Setting
- pot-grown plantse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“watermelon”
e0“Single stem pruning at 35 days after sowing showed the most pronounced improvement among all the tested treatments. This treatment strongly enhanced TSS (9.28 °Brix in pot-grown plants and 8.82 °Brix in field-grown plants)”
Claim · model-written summary
Single stem pruning gave 8.82 °Brix TSS in field-grown fruit.
- Taxon
- watermelonCitrullus lanatust0
- Treatment
- Single stem pruninge1
- Outcome
- TSSe0
- Direction
- enhancede0
- Value
- 8.82 °Brixe0
- Setting
- field-grown plantse0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“watermelon”
e0“This treatment strongly enhanced TSS (9.28 °Brix in pot-grown plants and 8.82 °Brix in field-grown plants)”
e1“Single stem pruning at 35 days after sowing”
Claim · model-written summary
Single stem pruning increased reducing, non-reducing and total sugars relative to other treatments.
- Taxon
- watermelonCitrullus lanatust0
- Treatment
- Single stem pruninge1
- Outcome
- reducing, non-reducing and total sugarse0
- Direction
- increasede0
- Comparator
- the other treatmentse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“watermelon”
e0“This treatment strongly enhanced TSS (9.28 °Brix in pot-grown plants and 8.82 °Brix in field-grown plants) and increased reducing, non-reducing and total sugars compared with the other treatments.”
e1“Single stem pruning at 35 days after sowing”
Claim · model-written summary
Sweetness enhancement was coupled with increased chlorophyll content.
- Taxon
- watermelonCitrullus lanatust0
- Outcome
- chlorophyll contente0
- Direction
- increasede0
- Comparator
- Sweetness enhancemente0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“watermelon”
e0“Sweetness enhancement is coupled with increased chlorophyll content”
Claim · model-written summary
Sweetness enhancement was coupled with enhanced antioxidant enzyme activities.
- Taxon
- watermelonCitrullus lanatust0
- Outcome
- antioxidant enzyme activitiese0
- Direction
- enhancede0
- Comparator
- Sweetness enhancemente0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“watermelon”
e0“Sweetness enhancement is coupled with increased chlorophyll content, enhanced antioxidant enzyme activities”
Claim · model-written summary
Sweetness enhancement was coupled with higher accumulation of primary and secondary nutrients in fruit pulp.
- Taxon
- watermelonCitrullus lanatust0
- Organ / stage
- fruit pulpe0
- Outcome
- accumulation of primary and secondary nutrientse0
- Direction
- highere0
- Comparator
- Sweetness enhancemente0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“watermelon”
e0“Sweetness enhancement is coupled with increased chlorophyll content, enhanced antioxidant enzyme activities and higher accumulation of primary and secondary nutrients in the fruit pulp”
Claim · model-written summary
Fruit thinning greatly improved external colour.
- Taxon
- watermelonCitrullus lanatust0
- Treatment
- Fruit thinninge0
- Outcome
- external coloure0
- Direction
- improvede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“watermelon”
e0“Fruit thinning greatly improved external colour”
Claim · model-written summary
Single stem pruning was superior for internal quality and overall marketability of fruit.
- Taxon
- watermelonCitrullus lanatust0
- Treatment
- single stem pruninge0
- Outcome
- internal quality and overall marketabilitye0
- Direction
- superiore0
- Comparator
- Fruit thinninge0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“watermelon”
e0“Fruit thinning greatly improved external colour; however, single stem pruning was superior in enhancing the internal quality and overall marketability of the fruits”
Claim · model-written summary
Authors recommend single stem pruning for sweetness, physiological performance and yield in off-season watermelon production.
- Taxon
- watermelonCitrullus lanatust0e0
- Treatment
- single stem pruninge0
- Outcome
- increasing sweetness, physiological performance and yielde0
- Setting
- off-season production conditionse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“watermelon”
e0“single stem pruning is an effective management practice for increasing sweetness, physiological performance and yield of winter-grown watermelon under off-season production conditions”
The same questions in other papers
pruning · quality: sugar starch · Citrullus lanatus (watermelon)Positive and negative results
1 paper in the same direction as this paper · 1 in the opposite direction
- no effect
- positive
pruning · quality: postharvest · Citrullus lanatus (watermelon)Results agree
1 paper in the same direction as this paper
- 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.