Study respond on yield of muskmelon to different soil tillage and management

Abstract

A two year field experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of different tillage methods on soil physical properties and crop yield of muskmelon. Tillage treatments in the study were moldboard plow + two passes of disk harrow as conventional tillage (CT), two passes of disk harrow as reduced tillage (RT), one pass of disk harrow as minimum tillage (MT) and no-tillage (NT) as direct drilling method. The statistical results of the study indicated that tillage method significantly (Pd”0.05) affected crop yield, fruit weight, fruit length, fruit diameter and total soluble solids, but there was no significant differences in other components such as number of plants per hectare, number of fruits per plant, root length and root dry matter. The maximum value of crop yield (18.5 t ha-1), number of plants per hectare (2100), fruit weight (5.15kg), fruit diameter (20.3cm), root length (42.0cm) and root dry matter (54.1%) was observed in case of CT treatment, while maximum value of number of fruits per plant (1.56), fruit length (23.0cm) and total soluble solids (8.8%) was noted in case of RT treatment.. The statistical results of the study also indicated that tillage method significantly affected soil physical properties. The soil of the CT treatment had consistently the highest moisture contents (17.6%) and the lowest bulk density (1.21g) and penetration resistance (560kPa); while the soil of the NT treatment had the lowest moisture contents (16.8%) and the highest bulk density (1.52g) and penetration resistance (1120kPa). Accordingly, moldboard plow followed by two passes of disk harrow was found to be more appropriate and profitable tillage method in improving soil physical properties and crop yield of muskmelon.