The yield and quality of melon fruits cultivated under different doses of organic fertilizers were evaluated. The field trial was conducted from August to November 2002, in Ceará State, Brazil. The experimental design was made of random blocks of four replications. Melon hybrid AF 646 (Sakata Seeds) was sown using a distance between-beds of two meters and 0,5 m between plants. Six treatments were evaluated 1) 100 g of Ribumin® in a linear meter; 2) 150 g of Ribumin® in a linear meter; 3) 200 g of Ribumin® per linear meter; 4) 1400 g of Pole® per linear meter; 5) 700 g of Pole® + 100 g of Ribumin® in a linear meter and 6) Untreated control. All the treatments were applied one day before seeding. After harvest, fruits were counted and a random sample of four fruits per plot was taken for analysis into the laboratory. The analyzed variables were: fruit weight (PF), longitudinal diameter (DL) and traverse diameter (DT), pulp thickness (EP), total soluble solids content (SST) and pulp firmness (FP). Yield was calculated from data of fruit number per plot and their mean weight. The variance analysis revealed significant difference for PF, PE, DL, EP and SST. The mean values for DL, EP and SST parameters of the treated group were significantly different from the mean of the untreated control. No significant difference was observed between samples from the treated group. Nevertheless Ribumin® fertilizer provided smaller production costs.
Cucumis melo; total soluble solids; pulp firmness; organic fertilizers; cost analysis
