World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Biological, Biomolecular, Agricultural, Food and Biotechnological Engineering Vol:7, No:5, 2013 The Growth of the Watermelons with Geometric Shapes and Comparing Retention between Cubic and Hexagonal Forms M. Malekyarand, M. Shariati Ghalehno, A. Mokhber Dezfuli, H. Saebi Monfared, S. R. Ghoraishi K. International Science Index, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Vol:7, No:5, 2013 waset.org/Publication/16953 Abstract—Shape and form of the watermelon fruits are important factors to save spaces and reducing damage during storing of the fruits. In order to save spaces and prevent fruit damage in watermelon the following experiment was carried out in the farm. The fruits were boxed when they were approximately one cm less than the box diameter. The cubic, hexagonal forms were compared in this research. To do this, different boxes were designed with different holes on the sides to holes the watermelons fruits for shaping. The shapes of the boxes were hexagonal and cubic. The boxes holes sizes were the same with 10mm diameter each. Each side of the boxes had different holes including: without holes to 75 holes. The result showed that the best shape for watermelon storing to save space and prevent fruit damage was hexagonal form. The percentages of the fruit damage were 33 to 80 respectively. Keywords—Cubic form, fruit damage, hexagonal, watermelon shape. W I. INTRODUCTION ATERMELON (Citrullus lanatus) belong to cucurbitacea family require a long, warm growing season the variety is Crimson Sweet. In order to FAOSTAT 102,889,076.00 ton at 2011 was produced. IRAN had 3,250,000.00 ton in this year [1]. Watermelon was first harvested in Egypt 5,000 years ago [2].There is 1,200 varieties of watermelon grown in 96 countries. It grow best under temperatures of 21 to 29oC, tolerating temperatures up to 32oC [3]. The plant also tolerates high humidity [4]. Although watermelons are produced on a number of soil types, the crop does not do well on muck soils [5]. The optimum pH range for watermelons is 6.0 to 6.5, although the plant will tolerate soils with pH as low as 5. Watermelon production is also affected by soil temperature. Seedlings are easily damaged by frost, and germination is very slow when soil temperature is less Malekyarand, Morteza is educational instructor at the Department of Agricultural Engineering and Machinery, Institute of Applied Scientific Higher Education of Jihad-e-Agriculture & (IHEC), Tehran, 3177777411 Iran phone: 00989121374841; fax: 00982636700880; e-mail: malekyarand.m@ gmail.com). Shariati Ghalehno, Masoumeh is agricultural mechanization student at the Department of Agricultural Engineering and Machinery, Imam higher education Karaj, Alburz, Iran (phone: 00989109366419; fax: 00982636660703; e-mail: [email protected]). Abdollah Mokhber Dezfuli is manager of Imam Higher Education Center (IHEC), Karaj, Iran. Saebi Monfared, Hadi is educational instructor at the Institute of Applied Scientific Higher Education of Jihad-e-Agriculture, Tehran, Iran. Ghoraishi Khorasani, Seyed Reza is professor assistant at the Imam Higher Education Center, Karaj, Iran. International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 7(5) 2013 than 21EC [6], [7]. Melons have historically been preferred during the summer picnic season. June and July are the primary months, accounting for 40 percent of the annual supplies [8]. To show a profit, a grower must produce good yields of high-quality melons, something that can be obtained only with careful management. [9] Fruit shape and appearance are quite varied, ranging from round to cylindrical and a single color to various striped patterns on the fruit surface. Watermelon fruit is very large, smooth and oval to round. The skin can be solid green or green striped with yellow. The edible flesh is usually pink with many flat, oval, black seeds throughout [10]. Symptoms of Phytophthora fruit rot begin as a watersoaked, often depressed and spot. Frequently, the area of the fruit in contact with the moist ground is affected first, but symptoms also can develop on the upper surface, following rain or overhead irrigation which provides splashing water to disperse the pathogen. In older lesions, a mass of white mycelium that contains sporangia may develop. Infected fruit can decay rapidly and collapse. Fruit decay may continue after harvest. Phytophthora fruit rot is caused by Phytophthoracapsici and other Phytophthorasp [10]. Management of soil moisture by selecting well-drained fields, avoiding low-lying fields, and not over irrigating is an effective management strategy [11]. Sun scald (burn) results from exposure to intense solar radiation that leads to dehydration and overheating damage of the rind tissue. Sun scald can be alleviated by covering the fruit with vines or straw material. Sunburn occurs most frequently in varieties that have dark-green rinds. Charleston Gray types and other melons with grey-green rinds rarely suffer from sunburn. Good, healthy foliage will minimize sunburn damage as well as favor good yields and quality. Strong winds can blow unprotected vines away from the developing fruit along the edges of the rows and cause full exposure of the fruit to the sun. Loss of foliage covering the melons can increase sunburn. Exposed melons should be covered with vines, straw, or excelsior as they start to mature to prevent sunburn. Each time the field is harvested, the exposed melons must be re-covered. Most fields are picked at least twice. The tops of the containers should be covered to prevent sunburn in transit. Watermelon sales usually are based upon a 1% to 2% shrink, because of breakage. The buyer is responsible for supplying bins and lids or the shipper will send a bill for the cost of these items [12], [13]. 335 scholar.waset.org/1999.1/16953 World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Biological, Biomolecular, Agricultural, Food and Biotechnological Engineering Vol:7, No:5, 2013 International Science Index, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Vol:7, No:5, 2013 waset.org/Publication/16953 II. STORAGE Temperaturee managemennt is imporrtant for opptimum watermelon quuality. The ooptimum storaage temperatuure for w m melons is 15.6°°C. Transit teemperatures off 12.8° to 22°°C with veentilation are recommendedd. Whole wattermelons shoould not bee refrigeratedd. Watermelonns are not addapted to lonng-term storage. Normaally the upperr limit of suitaable storage is i about thhree weeks. However, H this will vary from m variety to variety. v Sttorage for more m than twoo weeks trigggers a loss in flesh crrispness [14]-[[16]. Storing m melons for seeveral weeks at a room temperature wiill result in pooor flavor. Hoowever, when fruit is w days at warrmer temperattures, the flessh color heeld just a few tends to intensify. Sugar conntent does not change after harvest. h W Watermelons’ f flesh will tennd to lose its red r color if held h too loong at temperaatures below 10 1 °C [17]. III. MATER RIALS &METH HODS The followinng steps were ccarried out to shape the w watermelon fruuits: A. Planting onnce a week. At first whiile the weathher was cooller the irrrigation was eaach 7-8 days, but during thee July and Auugust in waarmer weatheer it is donee each 5-6 days. d Unfortuunately, unnexpected rainnfall for two tiimes that occurred in this period, p leaading to increaased downtim me on watermeelons. Fig. 2 Thee growth stages B. Shaping Fruits were boxed before rreaching to thee box sized diiameter (appproximately one cm less) in i 10-15 July.. Preliminary experiments with Glass,, Wood, Cooncrete, Trransparent Pllastic and Plexiglas show wed that thee best maaterial for Booxes was polycarbonate which w is a lonng life maaterial. Surelyy a shatterproof materiall that is 30 times strronger than glass g and 122 times stron nger than "A Artylic" .A ARTYLIC is a kind of a hhard and tran nsparent plasttic that maade by polym merized of accrylic acid essters. Polycarrbonate dooes not break.. But the preessure from growing g waterrmelon fruuit makes thee box separatted from the seams too slowly. s Allthough the Wooden W boxess were cheapeer, but they ch hanged thee color of waatermelon skiins due to lacck of sunlighht. The cub ubic die weighht design 1/3335 kg and hexagonal h weiight 1/ 1772kg. Boxes allow a water annd excess mo oisture to get off. In ordder to ventilaate properly several holess were installed on booxes sides. It is important to note that the over num mber of ventilation holes on the surfaace of the box, caused bodyy frame tooo weak andd likely to break b it. Teemplates to ensure consistency holees diameter 10mm and thicckness of 8 mm m was considered. Thee number of holes in each frame f was from m zero to 75 with thee same diam meters were also a investigaated to obbserve the effeect of aerationn (skin respirration) on fruiit skin. Thhis experimennt was carrieed out in a factorial f com mpletely ranndom designn with two factors: A. number of holes (inncluding: no ventilation or withoutt any holess, low ventilation, 100-25, medium m ventilationn 25-50 and d high b surface) and a B. shape of box ventilation 50-770 holes per box t andd three inccluding cubic and hexagonaal with eight treatments repplications. Fig. 1 Farm m of watermeloon ment was carrried out in a farm of the higher This experim edducational ceenter (ihec) in i Karaj cloose to Tehraan. The reegion's climatte is relativeely temperatee. The plantinng and haarvesting was done by studdents of (ihec)) and was suppervised byy the farm maanager. In ordeer to prevent moisture dam mage for fruuits they werre slightly thaan the others. Watermelon variety Cr Crimson Sweett seeds whichh are more suiitable to this climate w were sowed onn the rows with w 100cm annd 70cm from m each otther in 25, Appril, 2012. Thhey also have relatively thiin skins w which make thhem easier too form. The plants p were irrrigated International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 7(5) 2013 ome of die with different shapees & materials Fig. 3 So In order to drain d extra waater caused by b skin evapo oration, whhich can lead to rot waterm melon, some off 3-4 mm holees were 336 scholar.waset.org/1999.1/16953 World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Biological, Biomolecular, Agricultural, Food and Biotechnological Engineering Vol:7, No:5, 2013 International Science Index, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Vol:7, No:5, 2013 waset.org/Publication/16953 made in the botttom of framees. Since the strength m s of thee box is veery important,, the boxes weere designed and a assembled d by the stu udents. Immaature watermeelon fruits weere boxed as soon s as th hey reached approximately a y 1-2cm less than the bo ox size. Boxing the fruiits sooner thaan that, they were w damaged d due to hiigher temperatture of greenh house effects in i the boxes. In I order to o reduce sunshine, the box xes were shad ded by cut pllants or paapers. On the other hand llater, was nott possible to box b the fru uits. The fruiits were consstantly monito ored every daay. The co onditions prov vided for bothh cubic and heexagonal shapees were saame. whhere: =Observatio ons = Mean δ = Effect of shaape = Effect of nu umber of holess (ventilation)) =Interaction effect e =Error d in The factorial test incompletely random design has done wiith SPSS softw ware, by GLM M procedure analyze a and co ompare meeans of differeent groups in D Duncan metho od. Source Corrected Model C Intercept No.Hole Shape N No. Hole * Shape Error Total C Corrected Total Fig. 4 Watermelon W fru uits in die durin ng the growth C. Harvestingg After shapin ng the fruits pproperly, they were removeed from th he top end of the t box. The best time of harvesting h fru uits was w when all of thee box cornerss were almostt filled. Of co ourse it w be better and faster foor hexagonal form, becausse it is will clloser to its natural form m, spherical. Watermelonss were haarvested abou ut 60-80 dayss after plantin ng. They weree about on ne fourth of th his time in boxx. As the sym mptom of wateermelon fru uit ripening iss blackened sttem junction, so staying mo ore than th hat caused to more m damage. TA ABLE I ANALYSESS OF VARIANCES SS df MS 6533.2922a 7 933.327 76727.0442 1 76727.042 7 5706.4588 3 1902.153 782.0422 1 782.042 44.792 3 14.931 456.6677 16 28.542 83717.0000 24 6989.9588 23 F 332.701 26688.247 666.645** 277.400** ns 0.523 0 The results Table I reveealed that th here are sign nificant diffferences bettween the treatments inccluding shapees and nuumber of holess per frame suurface. TA ABLEII DUNCAN TEST E FOR MEANS CLASSIFIED BY NUMBER U OF HOLES S Level of (ventilaation) No. Hole N mean Std. Error CV% C 1. no ventilatioon 0 6 80.1667a 3.18 9.7 9 2. Low 10-25 6 60.0000b 4.26 17 7.38 3. Med 25-50 6 45.6667c 2.9 15.5 4. High 50-75 6 40.3333c 2.45 14 4.92 The results in n the Table II sshows that as the number of o holes per boxes increeased the fruitt damage deccreased. But th here is d bettween L3 and d L4. It mean ns that noo significant difference inccreasing the number n of hooles causing to higher venttilation ressulted to less the t fruits dam mage. TA ABLE Ш DUNCAN TEST E FOR MEANS CLASSIFIED BY TH HE FRAME SHAPES S shappe Meann Std. Errorr CV% 1- Cuube 62.2599 a 5.02 27.91 2- Hexaagonal 50.833 b 4.74 31.83 Fig. 5 Two ro ows of formed fruits f IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSSION Th he statistical model m is: International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 7(5) 2013 The results in n Table III sh how that the shape of box xes has sig gnificant effeect on fruitt damage in n this experriment. Heexagonal sign nificantly wass better than cubic shape in the casse of fruit dam mage. As the mostt researches hhave been caarried out on n cubic geometric form m, this research is going to find out a new hexagon form. ween the otheer polygons th here are For choosing hexagon betw b for better explanation itt is inspirit beeehives maany reasons, but strructure. Bees have been deesigned with an inbuilt ability to buuild perfect heexagonal shappes which hav ve been shown n to be thee most efficieent use of spaace. It also makes m the com mb very 337 scholar.waset.org/1999.1/16953 International Science Index, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Vol:7, No:5, 2013 waset.org/Publication/16953 World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Biological, Biomolecular, Agricultural, Food and Biotechnological Engineering Vol:7, No:5, 2013 strrong. Two reeasons First, bees want to o enclose the largest po ossible spacee with the least l amountt of wax. Because B heexagons are th he shape with the most sidees that “tesselllate”. In otther words, iff is put a buncch of hexagon ns next to eacch other th here will be no n spaces betw ween them. No N shape witth more th han six sides will w do this. Why W bees buiild complex patterns p lik ke hexagons for f their honeyycombs when simpler patterns like ciircles, trianglees and squares are an optio on. According g to the beeeologists reesearch, beess are masters of naviigation, co ommunication n and engineeering, making g use of all sorts s of naatural phenom mena or laws. One O of those laws l is the geo ometric tru uth that the laargest number of sides that will fit togeth her with leaving gaps is i six, makinng the hexago on a popularr shape th hroughout natture and speccifically in th he honeycomb b. Bees acchieve the fun nctional confiiguration of th he comb by creating c eaach cell as a simple cyliinder and alllowing the fo orce of prressure from close c packingg to flatten thee round shapee to the m more efficient hexagon. Itt is somethin ng similar to o what haappens to bub bbles when th hey get togeth her. Isolated bubbles b arre spherical but b have a flaat side wheree they stick together [1 18]-[21]. Su urface in contact& decreasee strress concentraation Fig. 7 The ccubic watermelo on Fig. 8 The hexxagonal waterm melon Unused spacees Point of sttress Fig. 6 The sp pherical waterm melon ms of watermeelons occupy a large The sphericaal natural form am mount of spacces to store. The T new form m not only saaves the sp pace (in natu ural form) bbut also it prevents p fruits from daamaging. In addition a to sav ve the space, it also has different d sizzes diameter it caused thee most damag ged rather thaan other sh hapes. There is one poin nt of stress concentration. The m maximum crush h cause to fru uit damage is on the contacct point. Th he contact points in cubiic form is much m more th han the sp pherical form, so less presssure is on fruits, f becausee every diimension is exactly e the saame as the next n one. Thee better sh hape after cub bic form is hexxagonal form. This arrangeement is sim milar to bee hive. h The onlly waste spacces in the latteer form arre at the angles. International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 7(5) 2013 m the suurface of the decade d waterm melon’s In order to measure skiins meshed paper p with on n mm diametter square 74% % was useed the paper was completeely attached to o the skins where w it waas decade, theen by countingg the square mm m of the pap per the surrface decade was w measuredd. Fig g. 9 Compare cuubic & hexagon nal fruits To make bettter results of retention the different num mber of hooles tried. So we w made a boox without any y holes. This kind k of boox made fruitts corrupt. In the same tim me we try diifferent nuumber holes. In four leveel: 0- no ven ntilation, 1- low l 2meedium 3- high h ventilation. This diagram m shows that the least daamage in belo ong to booxes with 75 holes. h Surly iit can be morre than this nu umber, buut according to o the box size it is the best rate. r 338 scholar.waset.org/1999.1/16953 World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Biological, Biomolecular, Agricultural, Food and Biotechnological Engineering Vol:7, No:5, 2013 REFEERENCES 100 [1] [2] [3] 80 60 Cube 40 [4] Hexago onal 20 [5] 0 0 25 50 0 75 [6] International Science Index, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Vol:7, No:5, 2013 waset.org/Publication/16953 Fig. 10 The raates of damage percentage to the t number of holes h TA ABLE IV THE PERCENTAGE E OF DAMAGE IN DIFFERENT SHAPES No holes Cube Hexag gonal 0 25 50 75 80 68 50.33 45 74.67 52 2 41 35.67 [7] [8] [9] [10 0] [11 1] [12 2] (aa) (b) [13 3] Fig g. 11 (a) Lack off ventilation (b)) Sunburn In this project impact of factors such as a lighting, aeration, m material and mold m to grow w watermelon haas been investigated. A After the growiing number off watermelon that was obseerved in th hose with few wer holes weere most affe fected by corrruption faactors and desstroyed. Temp plates that weere exposed to o direct su unlight were also sunburneed. Horizontaal formats weere also m more corrupt. [14 4] [15 5] [16 6] V. CONCLUSION O [17 7] In this invesstigation it waas concluded that for wateermelon storage the best b shape was w hexagon nal having medium m d veentilation (witth 25-50 holees) that it doees not have different sig gnificant by high ventillation (with 50-75 holess). The peercentage of damage fruitts significantlly decreased as the nu umber of holees in the boxess increased (frrom 33% to 80 0%). [18 8] [19 9] [20 0] [21 1] http://faostat.ffao.org http://watermeelonbenefits.com S. Mustapha Iran I Manesh- Moorteza Malek Yarand. (2011). Postt-harvest physiology (frruits & vegetable)) Spreen, T.H.,, VanSickle, J.JJ., Moseley, A.E., Deepak, M.S., and Mathers, L. (1995). 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(1994). Watermelons: An Economic Somwaru, A.., and Zepp, G Assessment of o the Feasibillity of Providin ng Multiple-Perril Crop Insurance. Prepared by the E Economic Reseaarch Service, USDA U in w the Universsity of Californiia for the Federral Crop cooperation with Insurance Corp poration. Maynard, D. M. & Hochm muth, G.J. 2006. Knott’s handb book for vegetable grow wers. 5th edition. McGovern, R.J., R J.P. Jones, D.J. Mitchell, R.A. Pluim, and a P.R. Gilreath. 1993 3. Severe outbreaak of phytophtho ora blight and fru uit rot of cucurbits in Fllorida. Phytopathhology 83:1388 (aabstr.). McGovern, R..J., P.D. Roberts,, T.A. Kucharek, and P.R. Gilreatth. 1998. Phytophthoraccapsici: New prooblems from an n old enemy. Prroc. Fla. Tomato Inst. Univ. U of Fla. PRO O 111:9–16. Lamont, W. J.. Jr., Orzolek, M..D., Harper, J.K.,, Jarrett, A.R. & Greaser, G.L. 2002. Agricultural A alteernatives: Drip irrigation for vegetable v production. Peenn State Cooperaative Extension: University U Park. 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Cold d Storage & Stocking the food stuffs Vol(1): fruits & vegeetable. Morgan, F. 19 999. The hexagonnal honeycomb co onjecture. Transacctions of the American Mathematical Soociety 351(May):1 1753. (1991). Shapees and structures aand their influencce on our world. Toronto: T Grolier Ltd. IS SBN 0-7172-27822-0. Sheldrick Rosss, C. (1992). Cirrcles: Shapes in math, m science and d nature. Toronto: Kids Can Press Ltd. ISBN 1-55074-06 64-4. Voderman, C. (1996). How maath works: 100 ways w parents and kids can nders of mathem matics. London: Dorling Kinderssley Ltd. share the won ISBN 0-89577 7- 850. ACKNO OWLEDGMENT The authors would like too thank these students that helped in n farm: Shariaati Sounghori, Afkhami, Haaj Hasani, Bazzregari, M Molaee, Zaman ni, Kababayan n. Mr Sanei the t farm man nager of ceenter. Mr Beh heshti, the Innstructor of (IIHEC) for staatistical prrocedure. Mr M Rahimi The head of Mechan nization Department, Mr M Mokhber the manageer of Imam Higher Ed ducation Centter (IHEC). International Scholarly and Scientific Research & Innovation 7(5) 2013 339 scholar.waset.org/1999.1/16953
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