Plantas de cobertura e doses de nitrogênio no cultivo da melancia na savana de Roraima, Brasil.

An experiment was conducted with the objective of evaluating the effect of cover crops and nitrogen (N) doses on the agronomic performance of watermelon cultivated under the edaphoclimatic conditions of the Roraima savannah, Brazil. The experimental design was a randomized complete block design with four replications. In the plots, cover plants were tested: spontaneous vegetation, brachiaria ruziziensis (Brachiaria ruziziensis) and pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan); and in the subplots the doses of N, being: 0, 75, 150 and 225 kg ha-1 in the form of urea. The average fruit mass, number of fruits per hectare, fruit productivity, pulp firmness, soluble solids content, titratable acidity and fruit pH were evaluated. The vegetal coverings formed by the pigeon peas and the Brachiaria ruzizienses improve the yield of the watermelon crop in the edaphoclimatic conditions of the savannah of Roraima, Brazil. The dose of 127.65 kg ha-1 of N yields maximum yield of watermelon fruits in the edaphoclimatic conditions of the savannah of Roraima, Brazil. The cover formed by the spontaneous plants favors the increase of soluble solids contents of the fruit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]