Variety Comparison and Comprehensive Evaluation of 27 White-skinned Melon Cultivars

In order to screen the white-skinned melon varieties suitable for facility cultivation in Hainan in winter, 27 domestic white-skinned melon varieties were compared. The study showed that “Mibao No.1” had the shortest fruit development period of 30 days. “M 2-23” had the longest fruit development period, which was 42 days. The highest yield of “FM 1764” and “Xuemi 29” was 3 150 kg every 667 m~2. The center soluble solids content of “Hongmicui 4” was 19.10 %. Through the correlation analysis of agronomic traits of these melon resources, it was concluded that single fruit weight was significantly positively correlated with fruit longitudinal diameter, transverse diameter, flesh thickness, fruit cavity size and hypocotyl diameter. The quality, yield and seedling traits of different cultivars were comprehensively evaluated by principal component analysis. The results showed that 12 agronomic traits could be transformed into 4 principal components, and the cumulative contribution rate of principal components was 85.211%, which could replace 12 agronomic traits to comprehensively evaluate 27 melon cultivars with white skin and thick skin. The comprehensive score of “Dongfangmicui No. 5” was 3.2, which was the first. The nine cultivars “Haofengmi”, “Hongmicui No.4”, “M 2-21”, “Miyu”, “Xuemi 29”, “Panshibaixuemi”, “Yulu No. 3”, “M 2-23”, “Cuihongmi”, all showed good performance, which could be as the preferred selection for introduction of winter white skin melon cultivars in Hainan.