Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus)

Did you know that Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus), a fruit plant, classified based on its size as a very heavy fruit weighing 500 g or more, which no other fruit can beat its cooling and juicy bite during the hot summery days?

Watermelon with the botanical name Citrullus lanatus, is a flowering plant species of the Cucurbitaceae family, a major vegetable crop family with more than 1,000 varieties. It is a monoecious, cross-pollinated crop, annual, classified based on its size as a very heavy fruit weighing 500 g or more. 

Water melon, a native of tropical and subtropical Africa, is said to have reached India in the prehistoric times. The species originated in tropical Africa where numerous wild types are present. It has been cultivated in the Medittaranean area and in Asia for several thousand years where secondary diversity occurs. It was introduced into India in early 800 AD and reached China in 1100 AD. Watermelon is a now common summer crop and grown throughout India. There is a great deal of seed mixture in the named cultivars in India since little attempt is made to maintain cultivar purity. It is an annual plant, that is, it can only survive in one growing season. The specialty of this plant is that male and female flowers are produced separately on the same plant. 

Watermelon's Sanskrit name is Kalingam or Vṛhadgolaṁ, and other vernacular names in India are: Tarbooz, Tarbuj, Kalingad in Hindi and Urdu; Kallangadi ಕಲ್ಲಂಗಡಿ, Kadu vrindavana in Kannada; Tarabūca in Gujarati; Kharbuja in Oriya; Thannimathan in Malayalam; Ṭarabūja in Marathi; Tarboosni in Tamil; Puccakaya in Telugu. Water melon has been cultivated for a long time in India and for this reason India is considered its secondary centre of origin.

Water melon, a flowering plant, is thin, groved vine covered with tiny hairs. It is long trialing vine along the ground and scrambling herb with frequently and easily extending stems of more than 5-6 m with 5.20 cm long soflty pubescent (hairy) leaves, trifid, with bipinnatifid segments, lobed (obtuse-round, obovate-oblong) and strong bifid tendrils. The leaves are very smooth from upper side and very rough on reverse side with strongly marked nerves. The plant produces pale yellow coloured small solitary flower which is feminine and pollinated by insects. It opens for 1 day and may abort if inadvertently pollinated or fruit load is excessive. In the axils of the leaves, flowers are borne, and feminine flowers give rise to large spherical to oblong watermelon fruits with varying weight (3-25 kg). The flesh color can be red, orange, yellow, or white. The red colour flesh (due to lycopene) is usually common, but yellow (b - carotene and xanthophylls), oranage or white colour flesh is also produced by some cultivars with numerous seeds to seedless varieties. The seed length of watermelon also varies from 4.4mm to 16.5mm. The seeds can have various coat colors or other decorations.The watermelon seeds are very rich in edible oil and protein. In traditional African cuisines, the seeds and flesh of some watermelon fruits are used in cooking. 

Watermelon fruit is 91% water, contains 6% sugars, and is low in fat. Only vitamin C is present in appreciable content at 10% of the Daily Value (table). Watermelon pulp contains carotenoids, including lycopene.

There are 17 high yielding varieties of watermelon grown in India. Watermelon seeds are imbedded in large part of the flesh and are an irritant while eating. To get rid of of this undesirable trait, Kihara in Japan concieved production of seedless 'Triploid' watermelons in early 1951. In India, 'Pusa Bedana' is a triploid seedless watermelon devleoped by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, which is developed from the cross Tetra 2 (tetrploid) x Pusa Rasal (diploid). Its fruits are externally medium green in colour each weighing about 3-4 kg. This is the only seedless variety of triploic watermelon in India. 

Watermelon is grown primarily in river beds and arid zones. Plants respond very well to good manure and fertilizers. The water melons are moderatley deep rooted crops, filling the soil mass to a depth of three feeet or more. It is irrigated in spring summer in the absence of rain. It is an important truck and home garden crop. grown preferably in frost free regions. 

Watermelon is generally grown for its juicy flesh which is very sweet. Flesh texture (stringy or fibrous) as well as sugar content also differs in different cultivars. It has chemical compounds which contributes to its antiooxidant property and other disease preventing health benefits. 

Watermelon fruits only mature when they are attached to the vine. Hence, immature fruits must be left untouched. For harvesting ripe fruits, the stem is cut about an inch away from the fruits with the help of a knife. Upon harvesting, the fruits are graded according to their sizes. Then they can be stored at 15⁰C for maximum two weeks. However, they must not be stored with apples or bananas since the latter lose the flavor.

The raw fruits can be used for pickling and candy making. The fruits are very seldom cooked as vegetable when immature. In semi arid region watermelon fruit provides a substitute of water, and are mostly consumed as desert. The juice is also fermented and concentrated into sugar syrup and used in the western countries for making beverages.

India stands at 3rd position in terms of watermelon production with production of 2.79 million tones while China leads at 60.1 millon tens; the area under its cultivation and the production volumes have been increasing over the years.

- Narasipur Char