Studies On Introduction And Cultivation Techniques Of Japanese Muskmelon "Earl's Darling"

Muskmelon (Cucumis melo L. var. reticulates Naud.), one kind of western thick-skin melon, has high economic value, because of its characteristics of very special flavor, fine texture, and good taste. For the demand in Ningbo, we introduced new high-quality varieties of muskmelon from Japan. Through two years field trials, some good varieties such as "Earl's darling" (ァ一ルスダ一リソ) have been successfully selected. In order to improve the cultivation techniques, the experiments have been carried out to systematically study on variety suitability, fertilization, disease and pest control, pruning, grafting etc. and their influences on quality.The results of variety suitability experiments in the seasons of spring, summer and autumn suggested that the variety "Earl's darling" was obvious superior to other varieties and was suitable for protected cultivation in Ningbo and surroundings. "Earl's darling" had characteristics of developed root system, strong main stem and leaves, relatively large and round shaped fruits covered with light grayish green and heavily netted surface. It needed about 59 and 56 days from blooming to fruit ripening in spring and autumn respectively. The average weight per muskmelon was 1.8 Kg wi th about 3. 9 cm thick pulp. The fruits had higher hardness, the flesh was yellowish green, flavorful, delicious, juicy and crisp, and the central sugar content was about 15. 5%. This variety was well adapted, tolerant to low temperature, resistant to the powdery mildew and relatively low incidence of gummy stem blight. The whole growth period was about 135 days in spring. It was easy to fruit set, planting manage, storage and transport. The experiments showed that all fruit quality indexes of "Earl's darling" were better than control variety "Shengtian No. 1", among which vitamin c was 2.78 times of control, the contents of mineral nutrients such as iron, calcium etc. were much higher than the control variety and reached by 38.6%, 13.9% respectively, and the content of ash and protein were 3.39% and 24.1% higher than the control.Cultivation techniques experiments showed that the available operation for "Earl's darling" were single-vine pruning, one fruit in one plant, top removing when the 25th true leaf emerged in main vine, better fruit setting in the 13th-15th nodes in spring and in the 12th -14th nodes in autumn. Field survey further indicated that the single-vine pruning with one fruit per plant or double-vine pruning with two fruits per plant was suitable in spring, and the single-vine pruning with one fruit per plant was suitable in autumn, but in summer, the double-vine pruning with one fruit per plant was more suitable showing that the net was beautiful, fruit size was medium, the sugar degree was high, and the yield was near to the output of which the single-vine pruning with one fruit per plant. The time of sowing was from July 10th to August 10th for autumn cultivation in Ningbo, and it couldn't be later than the August 15th. Using the method of root-protected and aerated cultivation (the medium was made of sawdust with a little of thoroughly fermented manure and added 25% of the soil, and the proportion of firm phase, liquid phase and gaseous phase were 20%, 40% and 40% respectively), the plant had grown vigorously and couldn't tend to per-senescence, the net was pretty, the fruit was easy to enlarge and had high sugar content and good quality, the yield was remarkably improved, the economic profit was outstanding, and at last the integrated disease resistant was notable enhanced. The "Yong stock No.3" and "Earl's darling" showed the best compatibility, and the grafted seedlings were better than the self rooted seedlings. Through grafting combined with single-vine pruning, plants were effectively prevented from soil-born diseases such as fusarium wilt etc., and withered phenomenons caused by toxic acids or low oxygen around roots. In order to effectively control the incidence of gummy stem blight, some measures could be taken such as reducing air relative humidity, pruning, removing old leaves in time, and more important, daubing "(?)traconazole (?)carbendazin" on the stem combined with spurting "tetraconazole" in the whole plant. In addition, 20% 2000×"Yizailing" (a new type of plant growth regulator) was watered to strengthen seedling and early recover during the period of seedling and transplanting, and also to improve plant resistant to fusarium wilt.