Protected cropping for specialty melons in North Queensland

Protective cropping could be an effective system for growing specialty melons in the dry tropics of North Queensland. The growing system could reduce outdoor risks for production loss, improve fruit quality, increase yield per m2, allow production offseason, and used for supplying niche markets in a segment of the larger melon market in Australia. First evaluations in Giru, Queensland, included seven cultivars of fruit types 'Galia', 'Hami', 'Charentais', small 'Canary', and 'Rockmelon', transplanted July 25, 2013 under a high polyethylene-covered tunnel. Plants were grown at a density of 2.8 plants m-2 in containers filled with volcanic rock and irrigated with a complete nutrient solution. Pruning and trellising was done to a single vertical stem, keeping lateral shoots on the main stem after the 7th leaf node. After bearing small fruit, lateral shoots were cut off after their second or third leaf node. To facilitate insect pollination, a screen window in the tunnel was left partially opened. On November 20 the cultivars had combined marketable yields that ranged from 2.8 to 8.2 fruits m-2 and 3.1 to 7.8 kg m-2. Total soluble solids levels in fruit ranged from 6 to 13 °Brix. Cultivars 'Tempo' ('Galia'), 'Tikal' ('Canary') and 'Sultan' ('Charentais') had fruit yields that were up to 2.6 times greater than yields commonly achieved with field-grown rockmelon crops. Sugar levels in fruits and marketable yields may be increased with changes in fertigation management. Promising results in this first evaluation justify examination of a greater number of genetic materials, in addition to the development of economic feasibility studies and further adaptive research to refine crop recommendations for growing melons in protective cropping systems.

La innovación de producto: un análisis de sus determinantes y su efecto en la supervivencia empresarial

La literatura sobre innovación en las empresas se divide en dos líneas de investigación; por un lado, los trabajos que analizan los efectos o resultados de la innovación (Cefis y Marsili, 2012; Leal-Rodríguez et al., 2015) y, por otro, los que estudian los factores que favorecen o fomentan la innovación (Galia y Legros, 2004; Madrid-Guijarro et al., 2009; Donate y Guadamillas, 2011). En relación a la primera línea de investigación, destacan aquellos que demuestran la importancia de la innovación en el rendimiento, la ventaja competitiva y la supervivencia de las empresas (Cefis y Marsili, 2006; Fontana y Nesta, 2009; Belderbos et al., 2015). Estos estudios reclaman la necesidad de estudiar más a fondo el efecto de la innovación en la supervivencia, en primer lugar, por la falta de consenso en la literatura (Fontana y Nesta, 2009; Zhang y Mohnen, 2013) y en segundo lugar, porque entre los diferentes agentes que influyen en la supervivencia de la empresa, la innovación resulta ser uno de los más importantes porque les permite afrontar de forma más eficiente la actual crisis económica y hacer frente al alto grado de turbulencia de la mayoría de las industrias (Colombelli et al., 2013; Mazzucato, 2013; Don y Kim, 2014). En cuanto a la segunda línea de investigación, los trabajos analizan los diferentes factores que influyen en la innovación, como son el tamaño de la empresa, la industria, los recursos financieros, las relaciones inter-organizativas, los recursos tecnológicos y el capital humano entre otros (Donate y Guadamillas, 2011; Sarooghi et al., 2015). Sin embargo, la literatura reciente enfatiza la necesidad de seguir profundizando en el impacto del capital humano y las relaciones inter-organizativas en la innovación; especialmente de la diversidad de empleados y de las relaciones inter-organizativas en los equipos de I+D. El estudio de la diversidad en el contexto empresarial es un tema que ha adquirido gran interés en los últimos años en la literatura de innovación por la escasez de trabajos (Østergaard et al., 2011; Meyskens y Carssrud, 2013)...

Evaluation of floral characteristics of melon hybrids (Cucumis melo l.) in pollinator attractiveness.

Floral morphology and biology are important characteristics for plant-pollinator interactions and may influence the behavior of these agents. This study aimed to determine which floral attributes of different melon hybrids influence this interaction and, consequently, their attractiveness in simultaneous crops. The study was conducted in the region of Petrolina, State of Pernambuco (PE)/Juazeiro, State of Bahia (BA) and Mossoró, State of Rio Grande do Norte (RN), in areas with the following melon hybrids: Yellow type, Piel de Sapo, Cantaloupe and Galia. For studies on floral morphology and biology, hermaphrodites and male flowers of each hybrid were analyzed for their size and nectar chamber size, pollen and nectar production, anthesis time and flower lifespan. Floral visitors were observed simultaneously in hybrids of three types of melon, from 5:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., in the two study sites. Evaluations of the corolla diameter and flower height indicated that the hermaphrodite flowers were larger in size than male flowers in all types of melon investigated, in both study sites. As for nectar chamber, male flowers are larger in width, but smaller in height, compared to hermaphrodite flowers. Regarding the volume of nectar, differences were found between floral types for the hybrids evaluated, in the two study sites; the hermaphrodite flowers produced 2-7 times more nectar than male flowers in all studied hybrids. Observations of visits of Apis mellifera to areas with simultaneous flowering of the three types of melon demonstrated differences in the frequency of visits between hybrids, floral type and foraged resource. Flowers of the hybrids Piel de Sapo and Cantaloupe exhibited larger corolla diameter, larger dimensions of the nectar chamber and greater supply of resources for foraging, which could explain the higher number of visits of bees to their flowers in the sites studied.