Frequência de irrigação e de fertirrigação com nitrogênio e fósforo na cultura da melancia

Abstract

The watermelon (Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum & Nakai), cucurbit grown in various parts of the world, has great socioeconomic importance for the Brazilian Northeast. In this region, the irrigated watermelon cultivation has been increasing, allowing the producer to offer high quality fruits, right when prices are most attractive at the consumer market. Aiming to evaluate the influence of different frequencies of irrigation and (nitrogen and phosphorus) fertigation on watermelon crop growth performance, three experiments were performed on the Paraguai farm, at the Cruz municipality, state of Ceará, in the period from October 12th, 2010 to December 20th, 2010. The statistical design was that of randomized blocks with six treatments and four replications. The treatments, in the irrigation experiment, consisted of applying different irrigation frequencies, being: DM (daily, 100% in the morning); DT (daily, 100% in the afternoon); DMT (daily, 50% in the morning and 50% in the afternoon); 2D ( irrigation once every two days); 3D (irrigation once every three days); 4D (irrigation once every four days). The treatments, in experiments with different frequencies of nitrogen and phosphorus fertigation, were: 2F (2 fertigations per cycle); 4F (4 fertigations per cycle); 8F (8 fertigations per cycle); 16F (16 fertigations per cycle); 32F (32 fertigations per cycle) and 64F (64 fertigations per cycle). We evaluated the commercial yield (PC), mass (MF), polar diameter (DP), equatorial diameter (DE), shell thickness (EC) and soluble solids (SS) of the fruit. We also evaluated the net revenue for each treatment in all experiments. The irrigation frequency treatments significantly influenced all variables, with the DMT irrigation (daily, 50% in the morning and 50% in the afternoon) accounting for the highest yield (69.79 t ha-1). This treatment also had the highest economic return, with R$ 6,052.20. The different nitrogen fertigation frequencies also significantly influenced all variables except the shell thickness, the highest yield (80.69 t ha-1) being obtained with 64F (64 fertigations per cycle), as well as the highest net revenue (R$ 8,799,00). The different phosphorus fertigation frequencies also significantly influenced the commercial yield and shell thickness variables, with the highest yield (67.54 t ha-1) being obtained with 64F (64 fertigations per cycle) treatment. However, the highest net revenue (R$ 3,427.41) was obtained for the 32F (32 fertigations per cycle) treatment.