EFFECT OF SOWING DATE AND PLANT DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF GURMA WATERMELON (Citrullus lanatus var. colocynthoides)

    Two field trials were carried out at Gemmeiza Agric. Res. Station ( Gharbia Governorate) during two successive summer seasons of 2005 and 2006 to study the response of gurma watermelon to three sowing date ( April 1^st, April 15^th and may 1^st) and three plant distribution system (S₁, one plant/ hill on one side of the ridge, S₂ : two plants/ hill on one side of the ridge and S₃: one plant/ hill on both sides of the ridge ) in addition  to their interaction on growth, fruit traits and yield. A factorial system in randomized complete blocks design with three replicates was adopted. The results revealed that early planting on April 1^st increased the vegetative growth expressed as plant fresh weight ,stem length,number of leaves and number of branches per plant than the other planting dates. However, fruit traits, yield and its as fruits weight, fruit diameter, fruit length, number of fruits per plant, weight of 100 seeds, weight of seeds in fruit and yield (kg/ fed.) were significantly decreased with delaying the sowing date .
Plant distribution system had a  significant effect on all studied characters in both seasons, S₁ gave the highest values of plant fresh weight, stem length, number of leaves, number of branches, plant fruit weight, fruit diameter and length, weight of seeds fruit and values of 100 seeds weight, however it had the lowest values of seed yield/ fed. The highest values of seed yield/fed. were obtained by using S₂ system .
The interaction between sowing date and plant distribution system had significant effect on all treats under study in both season. Generally, it could be concluded that, using early planting on April 1^st and plant distribution system (S₂: two plants/ hill on one side of the ridge  might gave the highest values of seed gurma watermelon yield under similar condition of this work.