Quality of Watermelon 'Top Gun' Fruit Submitted to Different Irrigation Depths in the Northwest Region of Espírito Santo

Watermelon is one of the main vegetable crops in Brazil and allows the management of its irrigation, an indispensable factor for its productive success. This paper aimed to evaluate the quality of watermelon 'Top Gun' fruit (Citrullus lanatus), submitted to different irrigation depths. The study took place in the horticulture sector at the Federal Institute of Espírito Santo, Campus Itapina, located in Colatina, Espírito Santo. The experimental design was completely randomized, containing four repetitions of each treatment. The treatments consisted in the application of six irrigation depths: 50, 75, 100, 125, 150 and 175% of the reference evapotranspiration (ETo), calculated daily, adding up to 598.3; 628.8; 659.7; 690.9; 722.8 and 755.8 mm, respectively, for the applied irrigation depths at the end of the experiment (irrigation + rainfall). After the harvest, the watermelon fruit of each treatment were analyzed for their quality characteristics, being: total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TA), potential of Hydrogen (pH) and TSS / TA ratio. The application of different irrigation depths interfered with the quality of watermelon ‘Top Gun’ fruit. The irrigation depth of 658.3 mm provided a higher value of total soluble solids, a characteristic that is used as indicative of sweetness, being the most suitable for the production of higher quality watermelon fruit.