The effect of foliar feeding on yield quality and the content of selected nutritive value components of three melon ( Cucumis melo L.) cultivars

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of foliar feeding with Florovit and Ekolist-Warzywa + urea liquid fertilisers on yield quality and the content of selected nutritive value components of three medium-fruit melon cultivars (‘Charentais F 1 ’, ‘Melba’, and ‘Fiesta’). A higher total yield was harvested from plants foliar-fed with Florovit and Ekolist-Warzywa + urea compared with the control without foliar feeding. The ‘Fiesta’ cultivar was characterised by the highest total yield. The type of foliar feeding significantly affected the total number of fruit per square metre. More fruit per metre squared was produced by Florovit-fed plants in comparison to Ekolist-Warzywa + urea. ‘Charentais F 1 ’ produced the greatest number of fruit. ‘Fiesta’ had the highest proportion of marketable fruit. The factors investigated did not have any influence on the percentage of disease-affected and unripe fruit. The greatest amount of dry matter and ascorbic acid were determined in the fruit harvested from the control and plants foliar-fed with Ekolist-Warzywa + urea, respectively. The highest levels of both components were assayed in ‘Fiesta’. Regardless of the type of foliar feeding, ‘Fiesta’ and ‘Charentais F 1 ’ produced the highest quantity of total sugars and monosaccharaides as compared with ‘Melba’.