Gurma melon is classified as a vegetable crop. For a long time, no attempts
were made to improve its characteristics or to develop new varieties. In this respect.
five inbred families of gurma melon in 54 generation were selected in an earlier study
through self-pollination and selection program for the commercial cultivar. In this
investigation these families were selfed to obtain the 55 and 56 generations and
consequently, they were developed as new inbred lines, and they were compared and
evaluated with the commercial cultivar. The results showed that the ranges of all
studied traits for all lines became smaller in the 56 generation than those in the S4
generation. At the same time, the means of the selected plants were changed every
generation for all studied traits, e.g., the means of seeds weight /fruit and 100-seed
weight were increased. The results also indicated that most new lines were
significantly increased in comparison with the commercial cultivar for number of
fruits/plant, seeds weight/fruit, 100-seed weight, yield/plant and yield/fed., while the
commercial cultivar had the highest values of plant fresh weight, stem length, number
of branches/plant and fruit weight. Generally, the results showed that selection
program was very efficient to give desirable new lines for gurma melon.