Crop Phenology, Dry Matter Production, and Nutrient Uptake and Partitioning in Cantaloupe (Cucumis Melo L.) and Chile (Capsicum Annuum L.)

Abstract

Currently, the information available concerning requirements for optimum crop growth and development, dry matter production, and nutrient uptake and partitioning for Cantaloupes and New Mexico chile type cultivars is limited. Such information is required to predict and identify critical stages of growth in order to develop efficient nutrient management programs for these crops. The goals of this dissertation are: 1) to obtain general irrigated cantaloupe and New Mexico chile plants development models as a function of heat units accumulated after planting (HUAP), and 2) to determine dry matter production and nutrient uptake and partitioning patterns of these crops as a function of HUAP. Four primary investigations are presented in this dissertation. In the first and second studies, plant development models for irrigated cantaloupe and New Mexico chile-type cultivars were obtained. For cantaloupe plants, early bloom occurred at 265 ± 47 HUAP, early fruit set at 381 ± 51 HUAP, early netting at 499 ± 63 HUAP, and physiological maturity at 746 ± 66 HUAP. For chile plants, first bloom occurred at 530 ± 141 HUAP, early bloom at 750 ± 170 HUAP, peak bloom at 1006 ± 145 HUAP, first green chile harvest at 1329 ± 120 HUAP, and red harvest stage at 1798 ± 58 HUAP. Also, these studies revealed that beyond the early netting stage (approximately 499 HUAP), cantaloupe fruits were the strongest sinks for dry matter accumulation. For chile plants, between the first green chile harvest and red chile harvest stages (approximately at 1550 HUAP), chile pods developed into stronger sinks for dry matter accumulation. The third and fourth investigations revealed that the period of maximum nutrient uptake coincides with that of maximum dry matter accumulation for both crops. The overall total nutrient uptake of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, B, Zn, Mn, Fe, and Cu for cantaloupe plants was 138, 21, 213, 132, 29, 28, 0.17, 0.20, 0.13, 2.0, and 0.06 kg ha⁻¹, for chile plants, the overall total nutrient was 216, 20, 292, 117, 56, 28, 0.31, 0.20, 0.31, 1.6 and 0.14 kg ha⁻¹ for these nutrients respectively.