Performance of different varieties of Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus)

Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus Thunb Mansf) grouped under vegetable but it is considered as a fruit. It is generally grown for its juicy flesh which is very sweet. The raw fruits can be used for pickling and candy making. The fruits are very seldom cooked as vegetable when immature. In semi arid region watermelon fruit provides a substitute of water. The juice is also fermented and concentrated in to sugar syrup and used in the western countries for making beverages. As a common summer season crop.it is necessary to determine how newly developed genotypes respond under field condition so that an experiment was conducted in summer season 2011 at Horticulture instructional farm, C. P. College of Agriculture, S.D. Agricultural university, Sardarkrushinagar. where in eight varieties Sugar Baby, Arka Manik, Asahi Yamato, Durgapura Lal (RW-177-3), Durgapura-RW-187-2, Sonam, GP-42 and GP-3 were studiednfor growth, flowering, Sex expression, yield and quality parameters. The experiment resulted showed that, with respect to maximum growth attributes, early flowering, highest yield and quality attribute with highest B:C ratio, the variety Arka Manik performed better all over other varieties.