Effect of Micronutrients and Plant Growth Regulators on Growth, Yield and Quality of Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum.) cv ‘Arka Shyama’

A field experiment was conducted during 2023–2024 at the Orchard, Department of Horticulture, Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, India, to evaluate the influence of micronutrients and plant growth regulators on the growth, yield and fruit quality of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum.) cv ‘Arka Shyama’. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with three replications comprising fourteen treatments involving farmyard manure (FYM), recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF: 125:100:75 kg N:P: K ha⁻¹), Ethrel (100, 250 and 300 ppm) and brassinosteroid (1, 2 and 3 ppm), both alone and in combination with micronutrient mixture and micronutrient mixture (2%). The findings revealed that the integration of micronutrients and plant growth regulators significantly enhanced vegetative growth, flowering behaviour and yield performance. Among the treatments, FYM @ 20 t ha⁻¹ + RDF + brassinosteroid @ 2 ppm + micronutrient mixture @ 2% (T₁₃) exhibited superior performance with maximum vine length (317.14 cm), number of branches (6.08), leaves (372.39) and nodes (61.96). The same treatment improved flowering by increasing the number of female flowers (15.37) and optimizing the sex ratio. Yield attributes such as number of fruits per plant (3.12), yield per plant (11.48 kg) and yield per hectare (57.40 t ha⁻¹) were significantly higher in T₁₃. The study demonstrates that the combined application of micronutrients and brassinosteroids along with RDF is an effective strategy to improve productivity of watermelon under Tamil Nadu conditions.

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