Estratégias de otimização do uso da água no cultivo da mini melancia “Smile®”

Abstract

The management of irrigated agriculture has gained more and more space among producers, who seek to minimize the application of water resources and maximize productivity. Thus, the study of strategies that help the management of irrigated agriculture is of fundamental importance, especially in places with arid and semi-arid climates. In this sense, the work aims to evaluate the development and productivity of the mini watermelon submitted to different irrigation depths, together with strategies that aim to increase the efficiency of water use. The trial was conducted in the experimental area of the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Ceará - Iguatu campus. The experimental design adopted was randomized blocks, where five irrigation depths were applied, corresponding to 50, 75, 100, 125 and 150% of ETc (mm day-1). The use of strategies consisted of silicon applications via foliar, use of hydrogel, interaction of irrigation depths plus strategies both following the manufacturers' recommendations. The variables analyzed were number of fruits per plant, weight of fruits per plant, weight of fruits, transversal diameter of fruits, longitudinal diameter of fruits, pulp thickness, skin thickness, electrical conductivity, hydrogenic potential, soluble solids and productivity, being these submitted to the mean test and regression analysis. The strategies presented significant results only for the PH and EC variables at 1% probability by the F test. The irrigation lamias obtained significant results at 5% probability for the variables number of fruits per plant, fruit mass per plant, pulp thickness, while for the other variables results were obtained at 1% probability. The interaction results were significant both for production and productivity components. The irrigation depth of 110% was responsible for the highest productivity (32,574.04 kg ha-1), estimated.