PLANT BYPRODUCTS as ORGANIC MULCHINGS to IMPROVE YIELD and QUALITY of WATERMELON (Citrullus lanatus Schard.) IN the Mexican DRY TROPIC

Watermelon is one of the most important socioeconomic horticultural crops in Mexico. Watermelon is the third most important horticultural species for exportation since the 50’s decade. Mulching is a habitual agronomic practice recently adopted by produce growers to reduce the weeds, pests, diseases and to maintain soil moisture, and this alternative increased the yield and reduced the time for harvesting fresh fruits. However, mulching is not a cheap technology that increased the cost production, and an associated environmental problem has been addressed, the soil contamination with plastic wastes, or air pollution when they are burn. The organic mulching is an environmental compatible technology. The objective was to evaluate the effect of different organic mulches on the yield and quality of fresh fruit of watermelon CV. Liberty under dry tropic conditions in western Mexico. The organic mulches evaluated were banana leaves (BL), sawdust (SD), rice straw (RS), coconut fiber dust (CFD), Andropogon gayanus grass (AG), and Dolichos (Lolicos lablab) living manure (LM). The treatments were arranged in  a completed randomized blocks design with four replications. Data were analyzed using ANOVA and meas separated by Tukey test (p = 0.05). Results showed no significant differences for the following variables: lenght guide shoot, numeber and weight of fruits per plant. The most significant organic mulches were: BL with 4.16 m lenght guide shoot, CFD with 14.3 fruits per plant, and AG with 7.7 Kg fresh fruit weight. AG produced also bigger dimensions in equatorial perimeter, and fruit length with 43.2 cm and 62.7 cm, respectively. No significant differences were also determined for yield per hectare, and sugar content (°Brix), but the higher yield was obtained with the AG with 20.6 ton/ha and 8.3 °Brix. In conclusion, the organic mulches did not significantly affect the agronomic performance of watermelon under dry conditions. Organic mulching is an important alternative to the use of plastic mulching, and a feasible alternative to use of biodegradable reources in organic mulching horticultural practices.