Effect of the application of jasmonic acid and benzoic acid on grafted watermelons yield under greenhouse conditions in the southeast of Spain for mitigation of stress
One of the main problems of watermelon crops in Sou
theast Spain is the thermal difference because of c
limatic conditions that appear during the first
stages of the crop. The objective of this work was
to evaluate the effect of inducing the systemic acq
uired resistance (SAR) and the induced systemic
resistance (ISR) through the application of jasmonic ac
id (JA) and benzoic acid (BA), respectively, to counter
the abiotic stress. We assessed two
treatments of JA and BA, T1
(500 mg·kg-1
+ 500 mg·kg
-1
) and T
2
(2000 mg·kg
-1
+ 2000 mg·kg
-1), as well as a control test using an experimental
design
of randomized blocks with four replications. The results obtained for kg·m
-2, fruits/m², kg/plant and fruits/plant did not show
statistically significant
differences. However, we obtained statistically sig
nificant differences in the average fruit weight co
mpared with the control test in the two
experiments carried out in 2009 and 2010. The results
showed that there was no metabolic cost in the plants when applying the assessed treatments
of JA and BA