Soil salinity and production of the melon plant irrigated with saline waters

Abstract

In this study the application effects of water of different salinities, in the mean soil salinity, up to 0.45 m depth, during the experimental period were observed and correlated with production characteristics of the melon plants. Two experiments were conducted at the same place being used waters of different salinities (S₁ = 0.6, S₂ = 1.9, S₃ = 3.2 and S₄ = 4.5 dS m^-1), used either alone or in the incremental forms in the different phases during the crop cycle, resulting in 15 treatments arranged in a completely randomized blocks design with four replications. The salinity levels of the irrigation water used during the crop cycle resulted in linear and growing effect of soil salinity, in both experiments. The correlation coefficients of the commercial and total productions versus the mean salinity of the soil were significant. The mean salinity of the soil reduced the commercial and total productions linearly, analyzed by experiment and together; the models of total production in the Experiments I and II, were similar, indicating that this characteristic is better related to the mean salinity of the soil.

Key words:
Cucumis melo L.; saturation extract; irrigation management