A proposal for classifying the coefficients of variation of melon yield, fruit weight, fruit number, soluble solids content, pulp firmness, total sugars, pH and total titrable acidity was established in data from melon experiments carried out in Mossoró, Brazil. The CV values came from 98 works, mostly from theses and monographs submitted to the faculty of Mossoró. The variation coefficients (CV) were classified according to Garcia's (1989) proposal and sample quantiles. A disagreement in the observed frequencies between these two methodologies proposed in this paper and that of Pimentel Gomes (1985) for total sugars, soluble solids content, fruit weight, pH, yield and number of fruits was observed. Small differences were observed in the low, medium and high CV bands for total titrable acidity. However, very high CV band for any assessed characteristic, based on the Pimentel Gomes (1985) classification was not observed. A very good agreement between the classifications proposed by Garcia (1989) and sample quantiles, and that of Pimentel Gomes (1985) for pulp firmness was observed. In general, the classifications proposed by Garcia (1989) and sample quantiles were more appropriate to evaluate the melon yield and quality traits than that of Pimentel Gomes (1985).
Cucumis melo; experimental precision; analysis of variance