MINILEE AND MICKYLEE ARE MINI-WATERMELONS WITH POTENTIAL FOR THE AUSTRALIAN MARKET

The watermelon industry aims to produce fruit greater-than-or-equal-to 10 kg, but supermarkets sell cut portions, so there may be a market f or smaller fruit, between 2 and 4 kg. We tested several small-fruited watermelon cultivars to see if there was potential to establish a mini -watermelon industry. Minilee and Mickylee (ex Florida) were the best 2 cultivars; the fruit of 3 Taiwanese cultivars split under slight pre ssure, and the fruit of the cultivars Sugar Baby and Baby Fun were too heavy. Minilee and Mickylee were grown at plant densities between 555 0 and 22 200 plants/ha. At 7400, 11 100 and 14 800 plants/ha, 70-72% o f the Minilee fruit weighed between 2 and 4 kg. In contrast, at 22 200 plants/ha, 79% of the Mickylee fruit weighed between 2 and 4 kg, but at the other plant densities only 38-59% of the fruit were in this wei ght range. We conclude that Minilee and Mickylee are suitable cultivar s for a mini-watermelon industry around Bundaberg and probably other p arts of Australia where Florida cultivars are presently grown. Because the yield of fruit in the 2-4 kg range for Minilee was less sensitive to plant density than the Mickylee yield in this range, we believe th at Minilee would be the better commercial propostion.