Assessment of Growth and Yield of Watermelon and Soil Physical Properties in Response to Different Tillage Methods

Abstract

Field experiment was conducted to investigate the response of soil physical properties, crop growth, yield and yield components of watermelon to different tillage methods in the transitional zone of Ghana in a two year period. The tillage treatments used in the study were plough and harrowed (PH), minimum tillage (MT) and no tillage (NT) which was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block design (RCBD) with 3 three replications. The two field experiments were undertaken at the experimental site of the University of Education, College of Agriculture, Mampong-Ashanti, (7°08‘ N, 1°24‘ W )located within the transitional agro-ecological zone between the forest and Guinea Savannah zones characterized with two rainfall regimes with an annual rainfall of 1094.2 mm with 30°C temperature. The soil belongs to the Bediase series with ochrosol type formed from voltain sandstone and a pH between 5.5 to 6. The statistical analysis revealed that, tillage methods significantly affected soil physical properties particularly, total porosity, volumetric water content and bulk density. Also, tillage methods influenced crop growth, (number of leaves and vine length), yield and yield components of watermelon in the order of Plough and harrowed > Minimum tillage > No-Tillage in almost all the treatments.  Accordingly, the ploughed and harrowed (PH) was found to be more appropriate and profitable tillage method to improving  soil physical properties, crop growth, yield and yield components of watermelon in the forest-transitional of Ghana.