ABSTRACT
Muskmelon is a polymorphic species with staminate, pistillate, or perfect flowers. The primary sex type is andromonoecious. Perfect or pistillate flowers usually appear singly on the first node of lateral stems on both side branches. Both, hermaphroditic and trimonoecious types have perfect flowers on the main stem. Grafting of a gynomonoecious scion to andromonoecious stock temporarily induced the formation of male flowers on the gynomonoecious scion. The rate of ethylene production by intact apical tips of muskmelons was greater in gynoecious than monoecious phenotypes. Treatment of andromonoecious muskmelons with ethylene-releasing compounds resulted in normal hermaphroditic flowers. The use of gynoecious muskmelon for hybrid seed production was not commercially feasible since the maintenance of the female plant depends on grafting.
