A new watermelon cultivar Kaimei No.6 with early maturation
Kaimei No.6 is an early maturing watermelon cultivar developed by crossing Kaifeng 1528 as female parent and Kaifeng 1505 as male parent.The fruit matures 96 days after sowing and about 29 days after flowering cultivated in plastic greenhouse in North China in spring.It has good fruit setting rate,the round-shaped fruit is covered with epidermis wax,the green pericarp is regularly ornamented by dark-green serrated strips,the pericarp thickness is 1.1 cm,the average fruit weight is 5.2 kg;the bright red flesh is crispy,sweet,with 12.2%sugar content in fresh center and 10.9% in subcen-ter.It has good growth,tolerance to low temperature and weak light,few hollow and thick-pericarp fruits formed under low temperature in the fruit setting stage.The average yield can reach above 3400 kg per 667 m2 in greenhouse cultiva-tion,it is suitalbe for protected cultivation in early spring in North China.