muskmelon production practices

2. Origin and distribution
• Wild species of Cucumis occur in Africa and it is likely that it
originated in that continent.
• Melon was introduced into Asia at a comparatively later date
there are undoubtedly well developed secondary centers of
origin of C. melo in India, China and then Southern USSR.
• It is also considered that China as P.C.O and Indoburma as
S.C.O
• It has been introduced to Europe and from Europe to the USA
by the early travelers.
• At present muskmelon is being cultivated throughout the
world under tropical and subtropical climatic conditions.

3. • Musk melon is an important dessert fruit in North India,
especially in UP and Punjab and is grown in almost all places
in plains.
• It is valued for its cooling effect during summer.
• In some rural areas immature fruits are also used as cooked
vegetable.
• Fruits have demulcent, diuretic and aphrodisiac properties and
are applied as a lotion in skin conditioning.
• It also prevents constipation.
• It is a good source of vitamins A, B and C.

4. Nutritional composition of muskmelon (all the values given are per 100g of
edible portion)
Edible
portion(%)
78
Moisture(g) 95.5
Protien(g) 0.3
Fat(g) 0.2
Minerals(g) 0.4
Fibre(g) 0.4
Carbohydrate(g) 3.5
Energy(k-cal) 17
Calcium(mg) 32
Phosphorus(mg) 14
Iron(mg) 1.4
Carotene(mg) 169
Thiamine(mg) 0.11
Riboflavine(mg) 0.08
Niacine(mg) 0.3
Vitamin(mg) 26

5. Varieties and Hybrids
Arka Jeet:
A selection from Bati strain of UP. An improvement over a local
collection (IIHR-103) from Lucknow. The fruits are small, round
with flat ends, weighing 300–500g each, skin smooth and orange to
orange-brown; flesh white with medium soft-textured, excellent
flavour, juicy, very sweet (15–17% TSS); rich in vitamin C. An
early-maturing variety, its average yield is 15 tonnes/ha.

6. Arka Rajhans:
PLS from local collection from Rajastan (IIHR107).
An early-maturing variety, its fruits are round to
slightly oval, weighing about 1kg each. Rind is
creamy-white and netted; flesh white, thick, firm and
sweet (11–14% TSS); shelf-life and transport
qualities are good. The average yield is 28.5
tonnes/ha and it is tolerant to PM.

7. Pusa Sharabati: ( IARI) An early cultivar maturing in 85 days,
its fruits are round; skin netted; flesh salmon-orange, firm, thick
and moderately sweet (11–12% TSS); seed cavity
small, keeping quality good, suitable for river-bed cultivation
and northern India. The average yield is 15.0 tonnes/ha.
Pusa Madhuras (No.445): (IARI) It is a midseason selection from
a Rajasthan collections with roundish flat fruits weighing a kg
or slightly more. The skin is pale green, sparsely netted with
dark green stripes and salmon orange flesh, juicy and sweet (12-
14% TSS). Keeping quality poor. 150 q/ha in 90-95 days.
Pusa Rasraj
An early-maturing hybrid, fruits oval; rind greenish-yellow,
smooth and sutureless; flesh green. The average yield is 17.3
tonnes/ha.

8. • Hara Madhu: (PAU) A late cultivar from a local collection of
Haryana. Its fruits are round, tapering towards stalk-end,
weighing about 1kg each; flesh light green, juicy and very
sweet (13% TSS); keeping quality poor; average yield 12.5
tonnes/ha. It is susceptible to PM and DM.
• Durgapur Madhu: A very early cultivar confined to Jaipur
region of Rajasthan. It is an early-maturing variety. Its fruits
are oblong, weighting 500–600g each; rind pale-green; flesh
light green, non-juicy and very sweet (13–14% TSS); seed
cavity big.

9. Hisar Madhur
Its vines are long, providing round fruits; rind
brownish-yellow with green sutures; flesh orange,
juicy and sweet. The average yield is 10.0 tonnes/ha.
Hisar Saras
With short vines, matures early with round fruits; skin
netted; flesh greenish-white and sweet. It is tolerant to
down mildew. The average yield is 8–10 tonnes/ha.

10. Punjab Sunehri:
Is a selection from the cross Hara Madhu x Edisto, early
maturing, pale green, thick skin, flesh salmon orange, thick
with moderate sweetness 11-12% TSS. Excellent for transport
and qualities. It is tolerant to PM and DM. 160 q/ha.
Punjab Hybrid-1: This is an F1 hybrid between a male sterile
line (MS1) and Hara Madhu. An early maturing hybrid with
orange flesh and netted skin. 12% TSS. Storage and transport
is good. Moderately resistant to PM and fruit fly. 160 q/ha.
Punjab Rasila:
An early-maturing variety. Its fruits are nearly round with
sutures, rind light yellow with medium netting; flesh green,
thick, juicy and sweet (10% or more TSS). It is highly resistant
to powdery mildew and tolerant to downy mildew. On an
average its yield is 16 tonnes/ha.

11. Kashi Madhu:
Medium vine and leaves sparsely lobed and dark green, fruits
are round, with open prominent green sutures, weight 650-725
g, half slip in nature, thin rind, smooth and pale yellow at
maturity, flesh salmon orange (mango colour), thick, very juicy,
T.S.S. 13-14% .
•Long storage with good transportability, tolerant to powdery
and downy mildew, medium maturity and yield 200-270 q/ha.
• Recommended for the cultivation in U.P., Punjab, and
Jharkhand.

12. New varieties

13. Sarda melon- The Galia melon, also known as sarda melon in Southeast
Asia, is a type of F1 hybrid melon originated from a cross between the
green flesh melon and netted rind melon cutivar.

14. Climate
• Muskmelon flourishes well under warm climate and cannot
tolerate frost.
• The optimum temperature for germination of seeds is 27°–
30°C. With increase in temperature, the plants complete their
vegetative growth earlier.
• Dry weather with clear sunshine during ripening ensures a
high sugar content, better flavour and high percentage of
marketable fruits.
• Cool nights and warm days are ideal for accumulation of
sugars in fruits.

15. Soil requirement
• A well-drained, loamy soil is ideal. Lighter soils which warm
up quickly in spring are usually utilized for early crop. In
heavier soils, vine growth is more and fruit maturity is
delayed.
• In river-beds, its long tap root system is adapted to growth. It
is necessary that soils should be fertile well provided with
organic matter.
• Muskmelon is sensitive to acid soils. The crop cannot be
grown successfully below a pH of 5.5.
• A soil pH between 6.0 and 7.0 is ideal. Alkaline soils with high
salt concentration are not suitable.

16. Cultivation
Sowing Season:
• In north India, early sowing is done in river-beds from
November to January.
• In northern plains, sowing is done in February while in
December–January in southern plains.
• To get an early crop, seeds, can be sown in polythene bags
(200 gauge) under protected cover. The seedlings become
ready for transplanting at 2–4 true leaf stage.
• This practice is prevalent in Punjab, where sowing is done in
last week of January or first week of February. The seedlings
become ready for transplanting by February-end or first week
of March.

17. Seed rate:
• The seed rate of 1kg/ha is optimum for sowing in
field by dibbling method, or in polythene bags. Sow
2–3 seeds/ hill.
• For direct sowing a seed rate of 2.50–3.75kg/ha is
adequate.
• The seed rate of 1.50–2.0kg/ha may also be practiced.

18. Land preparation
• Soil should be worked with a disc-harrow 2–3 times
followed by cultivation and planking 4 times.
• Generally 4m wide raised beds are prepared for
muskmelon Hara Madhu. For medium-long varieties,
3m wide beds are prepared.
• The row-to-row spacing of 3.50m for Durgapura
Madhu is optimum. Planting is done on both sides of
the beds. Hill-to-hill distance of 50–60cm should be
kept.

19. Method of Sowing:
1. Shallow Pit Method:
• In this method pits of 60 X 60 X 45 cm are dug at a distance of 1.5
to 2.5 m. each pit is filled with a mixture of soil and 4 to 5 kg of
FYM in compost, 30 to 40 gm Urea, 40 to 50 gm Single phosphate
and 80 to 100 gm of muriate of potash.
2. Deep Pit Method:
• This method is followed in case of river bed cultivation. Circular
pits of 60 to 75 cm. diameter and 1.0 to 1.5 m depth are dug at a
distance of 1.5 to 2.5 m distance both ways.
3. Ridge Method:
• The seeds are sown on the side of raised beds.
4. Mound Method:
• The seeds are sown on the mounds. The seed rate is 1.6 kg per acre.
The normal spacing is row to row 300 cm and plant to plant 90cm.

20.  Transplanting method:
• Transplanted crop matures 15–20 days earlier than the direct-
seeded one.
• For raising seedlings, take polythene bags of 15cm × 10cm
size and of 100 gauge thickness.
• Fill them with a mixture of well-rotten farmyard manure, field
soil and silt in equal proportion.
• Seeds should be sown 1.5cm deep. Watering of the bags
should be done daily with a sprinkling can.
• Stop watering the bags 2 days before transplanting.
• The seedlings become ready for transplanting at 2–4 true leaf
stage (3WAS).

21. • Abak et. al. 2010, studied the effect of VAM (Glomus
mosseae, Glomus etinicatum, Glomus fasciculatum and
Glomus Caledonium) on plant growth of soilless grown
Muskmelon.
• During the transplanting, substrate (perlite) was inoculated
with ratio of 1000 spores of the mycorrhizal fungus per plant.
• Results showed that all mycorrhiza species increased the plant
growth of melon plant in comparison to non inoculated control
plants. However, among AM fungi species the better plant
growth was obtained with Glomus coledonium and Glomus
fasciculatum.

22. • Wenjing Guan and Xin Zhao (2001) reported that in cucurbits,
hole-insertion and one-cotyledon grafting are the most
commonly used methods.
• When using hole-insertion method, both cotyledons of the
rootstock plant are remained while grafting clips are not
needed.
• In contrast, one-cotyledon method removes one cotyledon of
the rootstock plant and the grafting union is supported by a
grafting clip. Owing to incomplete removal of the apical
meristem tissue from the rootstock plant, re-growth of
rootstocks, also referred as rootstock suckers, is the major
concern about these two methods.
Grafting in muskmelon

23. Stage of grafting: first true leaf stage.

24.  Tongue approach grafting
• Melons and other cucurbitaceous
plants are generally grafted by this method.
• Seeds of muskmelon are sown 10-13 days
before grafting and pumpkin seeds 7-10
days before grafting, to ensure uniformity
in the diameter of the hypocotyl of the scion
and rootstock. The hypocotyl of the scion
and rootstock are cut in such a way that they
tongue into each other, and the graft is secured with a plastic
clip.
• The hypocotyl of the scion is left to heal for 3-4 days and then
crushed between the fingers. The hypocotyl is cut off with a
razor blade three or four days after being crushed.

25.  Slant cut grafting
Recently this method of grafting has got popularity. It has been
developed for robotic grafting. In this method, it is essential to
remove the first leaf and lateral buds when a cotyledon of
rootstock is cut on a slant.
 Mechanized grafting
Recently a fully automatic grafting system for Cucurbitace is
vegetables have been designed (Fernandez-Garcia, et al.,
2002) in which seedling quality estimation is clone by using
fuzzy logic and neural network. Further, healing chamber with
controlled atmospheric condition has also been designed to
enhance the survival of graftage.

26. Manuring and fertilization:
• Add 25–40 tonnes farmyard manure and 125kg N, 62kg P and 62kg
K/ha.
• UHS recommendation-25 tons FYM+100:75:50kg NPK/ha.
• Nirtogenous fertilizers encourage vegetative growth and increase
female and perfect flowers.
• The addition of nitrogen narrows down the sex ratio. The farmyard
manure should be incorporated in soil 10–15 days before sowing.
• Whole P and K and one-third of N should be applaid during sowing.
Rest of the N should be applied to the vines 3–4 weeks after
germination prior to earthing-up.
• Dig 15–20cm deep pits at the sites where seedlings are to be
transplanted. Fill each pit with a mixture of 1 kg of farmyard
manure, 10–15g of calcium ammonium nitrate, 40g of
superphosphate and 10g muriate of potash before planting. Apply
another dose of 10–15g of CAN to each plant after one month.

27. • Singer et. al., 2012 studied the Influence of Different Soilless
Culture Systems like aeroponic, nutrient film technique (NFT),
substrate culture (perlite in horizontal bags) on Cantaloupe
Growth and Fruit Quality under Protected Cultivation.
• Result showed that the NFT system (nutient flow rate was
adjusted to give 2.5 L/min.) is considered to be the best
system for producing cantaloupe.
• This may be due to that this system was the most favorable for
vegetative growth, good quality and high production
comparing with other tested soilless culture systems.

28. Weed management
• Hoeing keeps soil loose and free from weeds. In beginning,
cultivation can be fairly close to the plants and shallow (5–
10cm).
• Johnson et.al., 2001 reported that herbicide systems that
included halosulfuron (36 g a.i/ha) applied as pre-emergence
or glyphosate (1.1 kg a.i/ha) as postemergence herbicides
improved control of yellow nutsedge compared with
ethalfluralin(as emergence at 0.8 kg a.i/ha)alone.
• In general, sulfentrazone (0.28 kg a.i/ha) was the most crop
injurious herbicide and halosulfuron the least injurious,
regardless of herbicide placement. Halosulfuron effectively
controlled yellow nutsedge and provided versatility in methods
of application, with minimal injury to transplanted cantaloupe.

29. • Liu Xue-lan et.al. (2010)studied on Effects of Pruning Way
and Fruit Setting Position on Muskmelon and the results
showed that double vine pruning with 14 joint position fruit
setting and single vine with 15 joint position fruit setting were
the best in yield and fruit characteristics, followed by single
vine with 12 and 9 joint position fruit setting.

30. Irrigation:
• Maintaining sufficient moisture is essential. However,
frequency of irrigation should be reduced during
maturity period to get sweeter fruits.
• The light sandy soils need more frequent irrigation
than heavier ones. The flooding of the field should be
avoided, particularly when fruits are reaching
maturity.
• During dry summer, irrigate the crop at 5–7 days
intervals.

31. • Two soil moisture stress levels (7 days and 14 days) were
applied during two critical growth phases — flowering and
fruiting.
• Drip irrigation system was installed with a discharge capacity
of 4 litres/hr/ drip/plant.
• In a complete lifecycle of the plant, 884 litres of water per
plant was given.
• In 7 days’ stress treatment, water supply was restricted to 56
litres / plant (7 days stress × 8 litres/ day/ plant water
requirement).
• For 14 days, supply was restricted to 112 litres /plant (14
days stress × 8 litres /day/ plant water requirement).
• The water applied in control was 113.80cm.

32. • To mitigate water stress after its imposition for 7 and 14
days, water stress hormonal sprays of 6-BAP @ 10 and 20
ppm, GA3 @ 50 and 100 ppm were applied
• At the flowering stage, brix level went up from 10.97
(control) to 13.40 in 7 days and 13.72 in 14 days water
stress.
• Total soluble sugars were significantly higher in waterstress
treatment (13.82).
• WUE reduction was lowest in 7 days stress at the
flowering stage, where plants recovered fully and
maintained also yield level; this was more effective in
water-saving management.
• The impact of water stress at the fruiting stage was more
severe than that on the flowering stage.
• By stopping 7 days irrigation at the flowering phase, WUE
improved and farmers could save on 56 litres of water/
plant.

33. • Kroen et. Al 1991 reported that muskmelon plants
subjected to root flooding for 4 days close to harvest
showed decreased root respiration (by 30%) and
decreased sucrose accumulation in fruit (by 36% and
88% for inner and outer mesocarp tissue,
respectively).

34. • Marketable fruit yields were greater for subsurface drip
systems at 30cm depth than for furrow systems, with or
without plastic mulch. Transplants grown with surface drip
irrigation produced 75% greater yield in the 9-count fruit class
size during early harvest than did those grown with subsurface
drip (10- or 30-cm depth).
• Yield was greatest for direct seeded plants on subsurface drip
placed at 10- or 30-cm soil depth, and for transplants on
subsurface drip at 10-cm depth.
• Soluble solids content was minimally affected by irrigation
method, but was higher in fruit from transplants than in those
from direct-seeded plants.
• The average water applied for drip systems was 53% lower
than that for conventional furrow systems, and WUE was 2.3-
fold as great.

35. Plant growth regulators
• Korkmaz et.al 2005 reported that seeds were primed for 6
days at 25 °C in darkness in 3.5 % (0.35 M) KNO3solution
containing one of the following: 1, 3, 5 or 10 µM methyl
jasmonate (MeJA), or 1, 3, 5 or 10 mM spermine. Following
priming, seeds were subjected to germination and emergence
tests at 15±0.5 °C. Inclusion of 1 µM MeJA and 3 mM
spermine into the priming solution led to the highest
emergence percentages with 90 % and 85 %, respectively,
Therefore, priming in 1 µM of MeJA or 3 mM spermine
incorporated into the KNO3solution can be used as an
effective method to improve low temperature performance of
muskmelon seeds.

36.  Harvesting and Postharvest management
• The fruits for distant markets should be harvested as they
reach the half-slip maturity, to avoid losses from the over-
ripeness and decay.
• For local markets, harvesting should be done at ‘full-slip’
stage.
• Hara Madhu however, never reaches the full-slip stage and
colour of the rind can be taken as the criteria of maturity.
• Flavour and texture of the flesh improve for a few days after
harvesting and attain highest quality if the fruits are harvested
when they have developed their maximum sugar content.