SCREENING FOR SALT TOLERANCE IN MELONS

Twenty melon (Cucumis melo L.) cultigens (cultivars and breeding lines) were tested for salt tolerance. All cultigens were grown in the field using drip irrigation at three salt salinity levels: electrical conductivity (EC(W)) = 1.2, 7.5, or 14.0 dS.m-1. Nineteen of the 20 cultigens proved to be salt-sensitive, as measured by reduction in fruit weight, but not necessarily to the same degree (i.e., some cultigens were tolerant at EC(W) = 7.5, whereas others were not). One line, 'Evan Key', was salt-tolerant at EC(W) = 14.0. Increasing salinity levels did not affect the number of fruits produced in most cultigens. Overall, increasing salinity reduced netting quality but increased the total soluble solids content and shortened mean time to harvest in seven cultigens.