Browsing by Author "Dida, M. M."

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    Agronomic Performance of three most Popular Commercial Watermelon Cultivars in Kenya as Compared to one newly introduced cultivar and one local Landrace grown on Dystric Nitisols under Sub- Humid Tropical Conditions
    (Asian Research Publishing Network (ARPN)., 2008-11) Gichimu, Bernard M.; Owuor, B. O.; Dida, M. M.
    Agronomic performance trial involving five cultivated watermelon accessions available in Kenya was conducted at Maseno University Research Fields for two seasons between year 2007 and 2008. The accessions included three most common commercial watermelon cultivars in Kenya namely ‘Sugarbaby’, ‘Crimson Sweet’ and ‘Charleston Gray’; one newly introduced cultivar from United States namely ‘Yellow Crimson’; and one local landrace (GBK-043014) from Kaka mega district in Western Kenya. The five were evaluated on dystric nitisols under sub-humid conditions of Maseno Division, Nyanza Province in Kenya. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Data was collected on agronomic characters including days to emergence, days to flowering, maturity period, and main vine length, number of branches on the main vine and fruit yield (number and weight). The data was subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using SAS version 9.1 and differences declared significant at 5% level. Least Significant Difference (LSD5%) was used to separate the means. Linear correlation was done to compare the relationship between variables. Results demonstrated significant differences in agronomic performance between accessions. ‘Yellow Crimson’ was recommended to Kenyan growers as the best commercial cultivar with agronomic traits which leads to high yields. The landrace was found to contain various desirable agronomic traits which can be selected in future breeding programs. These include long main vine and extensive branching which were found to be highly correlated to yields. It is, however, highly seeded and its taste is unpleasant and should therefore be improved with regard to these traits.
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    Assessment of Four Commercial Watermelon Cultivars and one Local Landrace for Their Response to Naturally Occurring Diseases Pests and Non-Pathogenic Disorders in Sub-Humid Tropical Conditions
    (Asian Research Publishing Network (ARPN), 2008-09) Gichimu, Bernard M.; Owuor, B.O; Dida, M. M.
    Four commercial watermelon cultivars available in Kenya and one local landrace were evaluated for their susceptibility/resistance to naturally occurring diseases, pests and non-pathogenic disorders. The accessions included three most common commercial watermelon cultivars in Kenya namely ‘Sugarbaby’, ‘Crimson Sweet’ and ‘Charleston Gray’; one newly introduced cultivar from United States namely ‘Yellow Crimson’; and one local landrace (GBK-043014) from Kakamega district in Western Kenya. No inoculation was done because the study targeted naturally occurring diseases, pests and non-pathogenic disorders. Disease rating was done when the most susceptible accession(s) was severely diseased. Data collected was subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using SAS version 9.1 and differences declared significant at 5% level. The SAS procedure PRINCOMP was then used to perform a principle component (PC) analysis using severity scores and accessions plotted on two dimensions using the first two principle components (PC1 and PC2). Results demonstrated significant variation among accessions in susceptibility/resistance to various diseases, pests and non-pathogenic disorders that were observed.
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    Comparing the yield components of three most popular commercial watermelon cultivars in Kenya with one newly introduced cultivar and one landrace
    (Academic Journals, 2009-06) Gichimu, Bernard M.; Owuor, B.O; Dida, M. M.
    High yield is a major goal for watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) breeders. The objective of this study was to compare the yield components of some watermelon accessions available in Kenya and to identify high yielding accession(s) for recommendation to Kenyan growers and for use in breeding programs. A field trial involving five cultivated watermelon accessions in Kenya namely ‘Sugarbaby’, ‘Crimson Sweet’, ‘Charleston Gray’, ‘Yellow Crimson’; and one local landrace (GBK-043014) from Kakamega district in Western Kenya, was conducted at Maseno University Research Fields between September 2007 and May 2008. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. Data was collected on yield and yield components of the accessions and subjected to analysis of variance using SAS version 9.1. Differences were declared significant at 5% level based on Least Significant Difference. The landrace demonstrated the highest yield potential while ‘Yellow Crimson’ which is a newly introduced commercial cultivar performed much better compared to other commercial cultivars. Selection of desirable traits in these accessions has priority for the future breeding programs. ‘Yellow Crimson’ was also recommended to Kenyan growers as the commercial cultivar with highest yield potential.
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    Yield of three Commercial Watermelon Cultivars in Kenya as compared to a local landrace
    (2010) Gichimu, Bernard M.; Owuor, B.O; Dida, M. M.
    High yield is a major goal for watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) breeders. The objective of this study was to measure the yield potential of some watermelon accessions available in Kenya and identify high yielding ones for growers and for use in breeding programmes. A field trial was conducted at Maseno University Research Fields for two seasons between September 2007 and May 2008. Accessions studied included three most common commercial cultivars in Kenya, namely: ‘Sugarbaby’, ‘Crimson Sweet’ and ‘Charleston Gray’, one cultivar (‘Yellow Crimson’) newly introduced from the United States, and one local landrace (GBK-043014) from Kakamega district in Western Kenya. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. Data was collected on total number of female flowers per plant, main vine length, number of branches on the main vine, number and weight of fruits. Data collected were subjected to analysis of variance using SAS version 9.1 and significantly different means were separated using the Least Significant Difference test at P = 0.05. Linear regression was done to establish relationships between variables. Results revealed significant variation among accessions in all the yield components that were measured. The landrace had the highest yield compared to commercial cultivars owing to its long vine and extensive branching. It was therefore concluded that selection of desirable traits in this accession be given priority for future breeding programmes. ‘Yellow Crimson’ performed much better than other commercial cultivars and is therefore recommended to Kenyan growers as the cultivar with highest yield potential.