Interactive Effects of Residue and Tillage Methods on Growth, Yield and Yield Components of Melon

Abstract

Conventional tillage is practiced substantialy in melon growing areas. Although conventional tillage has destructive effects on the environment, it also has many negative effects on the health of agroecosystems and crop production. However, very few experiments and data have been conducted to investigate the functional differences (growth, yield and yield components) of melon crop under different tillage methods. Field experiments were accomplished to research the interactive effect of residue and tillage methods on growth analysis, yield and yield components of melon during the 2019 growing season. Tillage treatments in this research included were conventional tillage (CT; moldboard ploughing + two passes of disk harrowing), no-tillage (NT) and minimum tillage (MT; one pass of disk harrowing) and. Residue treatments were included 0%, 30% and 60%. Yield, yield components included fruit weight per plant (FWPP), the number of fruit per plant (NFPP), diameter (D), length (L), sugar (S), radiation use efficiency (RUE) and water use efficiency (WUE) were obtained for all treatments. Results showed that tillage methods significantly (P≤0.05) influenced the yield and yield components. Analysis of variance results showed that yield, FWPP, NFPP, D, L, S and RUE were significantly under the different tillage methods, moreover yield, FWPP, NFPP, D, L and S were significantly under the different residue percentage and interactive effect of tillage and residue. The maximum FWPP (2.678kg), NFPP (6.799), D (18.49cm), L (45.93cm), S (12.51%) and RUE (2.470) as a result yield (16.17 t ha -1 ) were observed with the CT. Also, maximum FWPP (2.192), NFPP (5.353), D (16.66), L (39.52) and yield (12.83 t ha -1 ) were obtained from 30% residue. On the other hand, maximum FWPP (2.850), NFPP (6.790), D (20.71), L (53.53) and yield (17.09 t ha -1 ) from CT30% were obtained. Therefore, moldboard ploughing followed by two passes of disk harrow with 30% residue were found to be more appropriate and profitable tillage method and residue percentage in improving the yield of melon in the temperate cold climatic zone. Almost all of the growth indicators were optimum for conservation tillage treatments, especially with 30% residue.