Vine Crops Week 13 PDF

Vine Crops Dr. Waleed Al-Busaidi  ‘Vine Crops’ or Cucurbits Cucurbitaceae or ‘Vine Crop’ Family Cucumber Cucumis sativus Muskmelon Cucumis melo Watermelon Citrullus vulgaris Pumpkins/Squash Cucurbita pepo, moschata, maxima Gourds Langenaria sp or Cucurbita sp All generally produce...

Vine Crops Dr. Waleed Al-Busaidi  ‘Vine Crops’ or Cucurbits Cucurbitaceae or ‘Vine Crop’ Family Cucumber Cucumis sativus Muskmelon Cucumis melo Watermelon Citrullus vulgaris Pumpkins/Squash Cucurbita pepo, moschata, maxima Gourds Langenaria sp or Cucurbita sp All generally produce on trailing or sprawling plants All produce a common flavor compound, Cucurbitacin- the cucumbery flavor; when concentrated is bitter Have separate male/female flowers on the same plant (monoecious) and require bees to transfer pollen Flowers open early morning and close mid afternoon Open/close for about 3 days for pollination on melons, only a day for cucumbers. Male flowers outnumber female flowers 3-4 to 1 and male develop 7-10 days before female flowers appear Male flowers: long stems, pollen only, will start opening before the female flowers develop. Female flowers – short stems, develop fruit between flower and the main stem Insect Pollination One pollen grain for each seed. Need 5-7 bee visits per flower. Bees pollinate only from sunup to mid-afternoon and only on sunny days May require hives of bees (up to 1 hive per acre for cucumbers) as pollenizers. Some growers pay beekeepers to place a hive near their fields. Native or wild bees can do some pollination. Hand Pollination: a requirement for seed-saving. Must tape flowers shut before they open, then hand pollinate and re-tape and mark female flowers. Alternative is ½ mile separation or cages with pollinators inside. Cucumber Cucumis sativus Cucurbitaceae/Gourd - Warm season annual/ summer season >20 oC - Have trailing or climbing growth habit - Origin India/South Asia - - Breeders  climates and production systems (Field & Green house) - Year around production  Market (slicer) or pickling - Vary in growth habit (dwarf/determinate & indeterminate), flowering/reproductive biology or sex expression, fruit characteristic, disease resistance - Fruit is Pepo - Tendrils and flower at leaf axils - First male flower than female flowers - Male: Female ratio high towards maleness - Botanically  Monoecious Gynoecious (female flowers) - Flowering influenced by temperature and photoperiod Low temperature/SD earlier and more pistillate flowers High /LD greater male flowers - Deep root system - Plant susceptible to cold soil Crop establishment & Maintenance - Direct seeding in filed fungicide treatment - Germination at 16 – 26 oC mean temperature - Light well drained soil (Sandy silt/ clay loam + OM) - pH 6-6.8 - Manure very important - P&k with soil preparation - N 50% with soil preparation & 50 % side dressing vines begin to spread - K deficiency  bottle neck fruits - Low N restrict growth, reduce fruit set & color - Planting  1-2 m rows & 25-50 cm between plants - Beds or ridges under surface irrigation Weed Control - Mulch - Chemical - Cultivation Cultivars - Processing ( pickling) /Fresh market/Greenhouse Diseases & Insect - Fruit rot - damping off (Pythium) - Fruit fly - Mosaic virus Greenhouse Cucumber - Soil or soilless media - Temperature 26 – 36 oC - Green house cucumber parthoenocarpic varieties - Twin rows 45 cm inter row - Direct seeding or transplant when seedlings 3- 4 true leaves - Plants trained vertically Harvesting - By hand day after day - Harvest when ready for market before maturity seed small and very soft - Pickling cucumbers are harvested immature - Fruit matured on plant will stop additional fruit set - 7-10 days after pollination - Graded 1& 2 - Packed – short term storage 10-13 oC and 95% RH for 1 week Water melonCitrullus lanatnus 2N 22 Cucurbitaceae/Gourd -Originated in Central Africa -Top 5 crops -Fresh desert and juices -Cooking, livestock feed and roasted seeds -Source of water in drought areas like Africa -Low nutritional value -Annual warm season crop -Deep root system -Monoecious flowering -Fruit have different shape and flesh color; Lycopene (Red flesh) and beta-carotene and xanthophylls (yellow flesh) pigments Seedless water melon - Developed 1st by Kihara in Japan - Triploid (3N) varieties - Sterile no seed develop -Produced by Crossing Tetraploid (4N) plant X Diploid (2N) plant -Tetrapolid plant is obtained by treating diploid plant with Colchicine  double chromosome number -Pistillate flower of tetrapolid is pollinated with diploid pollen -Resulted fruit with 3N seeds -3N seeds planted in field with 2N varieties - Hybrid triploid watermelons do not produce sufficient viable pollen to induce fruit set and development. - Fields interplanted with pollenizer, diploid (seeded) watermelon plants to provide additional pollen. - Planting the pollenizer variety in the outside row and then every third row / every third plant in a row  but this makes harvesting a little more difficult. - Under no circumstances should the pollenizer variety and the seedless variety be planted in separate but adjacent blocks! - As a general rule, direct field seeding of the pollenizer variety should be done on the same day the triploid seed is planted in the greenhouse. Crop establishment and maintenance - Direct seeding at soil temperature 18-20 oC - Light well drained soils - Organic matter is very important - pH 6-6.8 - K diffenecy result in bottle necked fruits - P - N added with soil preparation - 2nd dose when plant 7-13 cm (side dressing) - Space between rows 2.4-3 m, 0.9-1.8 m between plants - The fruit set and early fruit development periods are particularly critical in that the growers should avoid water stressing the plants. - Do not allow the fruits to get wet while irrigating. Two weeks prior to maturity irrigation should be stop. - Irrigation regular , never during mid day. - The crop should not be irrigated heavily just before and during harvesting, for it usually inhibits sugar development in the fruit - Thinning is important as early developing fruit has an inhibitory influence on development of later formed fruits. - Deformed fruits results primarily from water stress and/or insufficient pollination are removed at an early stage in order to obtain uniformly well-shaped fruits. - Usually when there are more than three fruits on a plant, the younger fruits self aborts. - Removal of misshapen fruits, thinning of two fruits per vines of varieties which produced large size. Maturity indices - Sugar content TSS - Color - fruit part resting in the ground becomes a distinct yellow patch - Tendril right behind each fruit dried down up to the base. - Tapping/ thumping ? a dull or hallow sound is an indication to maturity. An immature fruit will thump with a clear, metallic ringing tone. Harvest and storage - 100 – 150 Days t harvest in warm temperature deepening on cultivars - Water melons should be cut from the vines rather than pulled off, leave the stems as long as possible. This is important for shipping as it helps prevent stem end rot of the melons. - Not suited for long term storage - At 13-16 oC for 2-3 weeks at 80% RH Disease and insects Viruses Wilt -White fly Disorders Bottle neck Fruit crack and split Hallow heart Sun burn Musk melon Cucumis melo Cucurbitaceae/Gourd Cantaloupe, Honeydew, Persian - Indigenous to Africa (Egypt) and second center is Iran and adjacent areas - Annual with Monoecious / andromonoecious flowering - Warm season crop - Limited by frost - Low nutritional value - Extensive shallow root system - Aroma due to volatile compounds like, alcohols, acids and their ester formed during ripening - Aroma varies with different verities of Cucumis melo Crop establishment and maintenance - 20,000 seedlings are required for planting in one hectare - Direct seeding or transplanting at soil temperature 18-20 oC - Light well drained soils - Organic matter is very important - pH 6-6.8 - K deficiency result in bottle necked fruits - N added with soil preparation - 2nd dose when plant 7-13 cm (side dressing) - Space between rows 2.4-3 m, 0.9-1.8 m between plants - The first flowers to appear on the vines are male, and they drop naturally. - Poor soil fertility (especially low potassium), cool temperatures, wet or cloudy weather, choosing a poorly adapted variety, loss of leaves by disease or picking the melons before they are ripe can all contribute to poor quality.  In-row 20 – 30 cm single line/2-3m bed / 30 - 60 with 2 lines/2-3 m bed. Harvested at the 3/4 slip stage of maturity. Fields may be harvested 5 -10 times over a 3-week period. Squash Cucurbita pepo , Cucrbita moschata and Cucurbita maxima pumpkins Cucurbita pepo, Cucrbita moschata , Bottle gourd Lagenaria siceraria - Native to tropical and subtropical America -Only group diversified in New World - all Cucurbita spp are used raw, baked, pickled mature or immature. -Pumpkins  ripe as table vegetables or in pies -Flesh is coarse and strongly flavored - Fruit vary in size shape and color and harvesting maturity - - Fruit is a Pepo - Warm season Monoecious annuals - Affected by frost - Cross-pollinate and therefore require insect pollinators  Crop establishments and maintenance -Squash and pumpkins varieties are mainly direct seeded and sometimes transplanted -Summer squash types are generally grown on raised beds with drip irrigation and plastic mulch. -Manipulating soil water is used to control soil borne diseases like Phytophthora root rot and Pythium. -Without good pollination yields are drastically decreased Harvest -Summer squash has multiple harvests that may occur on a daily basis when environmental conditions are favorable for fruit growth, or fruit are harvested every- other day. 2-3 d after anthesis -If summer squash are left on the plant grow too large, they become unmarketable - Summer squash are carefully hand harvested in the field and brought into packing barns where they are washed in chlorinated water to remove surface debris and pathogens. -Handling summer squash types must be done with care since they easily scratch and bruise. -Squash are sorted by size