Dargazi 93, a New Melon Cultivar Suitable for Cultivation in Tempereate- Warm Areas of Iran

Dargazi melon is one of the important populations of high quality in terms of sugar (15 to 17 brix) and it taste in Khorasan Razavi province. Dargazi melon fruit has bright white and yellow skin color with green lines. This variety has oblong shape and therefore it has better marketing value than other varieties. In the first step of experiment the different characteristics and compatibility melon populations were evaluated in different areas of the province during 1998 to 2001 for four years at Mashhad, Torbat-e Jam and Birjand cities. Dargazi melons population among compared populations had desirable traits such as high sugar content (Brix), high quality and special flavor, good shape and relative resistance to melon fly as the most important pests of fruit and melon. In the next step in order to improve the agronomic traits of the native population of the project was carried out during 2006 to 2011 for 5 years in the Mashhad and Gonabad. The plant row method was used for breeding selection. Gardner was classified as farm network. With fruit ripening in the first year, 10 percent of desirable plants from each plot were selected. Selection of fruits and seeds were numbered separately. In the second year, half of the seeds of each number were stored and the other half was planted in a 20 meters row in order to charactering and comparing population with each other. After selecting the superior numbers at the end of the second year, the seeds were bringing out from the ware house and mixed for planting purposes thru following year. In third year their seeds were planted, and since the obtained population had no good uniformity and purity, breading program was repeated for another 3 years, as the first step was.At the end of the fifth year, breeding population were compared with initial population by using t-test. By the end of the selection period, the improved population had high percentage of desirable traits. The results showed that breeding program was able to improve many quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the Dargazi melon initial population. Advanced population had uniformity, high eryield and sugar content. The number of fruits per plant and average fruit weight was higher than the initial population. At this step obtained population as advanced population with having better uniformity and superiority was propagated as nucleus mother seed. In the final step of the breeding program at 2013, thru a two-year research-extension project, the breeding population Dargazi was compared with initial Dargazi population (control) in Gonabad and Torbat-e Jam. The results showed that advanced population with having 19 tons yield per hectare significantly was better than initial population with having 5.8 tons yield per hectare.