USING SOME EGYPTION MELON LANDRACES AND INTRODUCED GENOTYPES FOR OBTAINING NEW HYBRIDS WITH BEST YIELD AND QUALITY

Abstract

The aim of this study was to collect some melon landraces, identify, characterize and evaluate them for yield, fruit quality in order to establish a breeding program for melon to improve this crop and raise a new hybrids. First experiment Five landraces[Quena 2(1), BeniSwif 1(2), Fayoum(3), Ismailawi(4), Giza-Berkash 2(5)] were collected. They were self- pollinated in Egypt was carried out twice in the open field at (KVRF), the first in April 2012 and crossed in the second August 2012. Diallel cross to produce nineteen F1 hybrids in summer planting date were selected from these local melon the five landraces and there nineteen crosses were evaluated in the open field on 26 March in 2014. The ecotypes, Landraces 3 and Hybid 5 × 2 recorded the highest significant values for Average stem length, The ecotypes, Landraces 1× 2 and Hybrid 3 × 4 recorded the highest significant values for Average number of branches, and The Hybrid 3 × 1 recorded the highest significant values for Leaf area than the other ecotypes in the summer seasons of 2013 and 2014 summer plantings without significant differences between them. In two seasons, 2x3 melon ecotypes exhibited the highest significant CC values (67.83 spad,) over all evaluated ecotypes without significant differences between them meanwhile, the hybrid 1x3 (54.15 spad) had the lowest significant cc across all evaluated entries The results showed significant differences among the evaluated melon landraces and hybrids and revealed a wide range of variation for this trait. The lowest significant NDR in 2013 and 2014 (i.e., earlier) among the evaluated ecotypes was produced by the melon landraces and hybrids1 (37.5 days), 3 (35.1 days), 2 (38.3 days), and 1x4 (38.0days) without significant differences among them .3x5, 3x1 and 4x5 showed the highest NDR value in 2014

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