Eleven local melon landraces were collected from different regions of A.R.E, seeds of these melon populations were sown in complete randomize block design at El-Kassasien Horticulture Research Station, Ismaelia Governorate, to evaluate the morphological performance, yield, quality as well as genetic relationships, and pathogenicity test for damping-off caused by fusarium spp. and Verticillium albo-atrum. The results indicated that:
1) There were significant differences and wide range of variations for mean performance of all melon landraces, for all studied traits.
2) Kenna melon landrace exhibited the highest values for plant height and internode length, on main stem, meanwhile, Kahera-6, exhibited the highest value for number of nodes, on the main stem, while fayoum melon landrace exhibted the lowest value for the above mentioned characters.
3) Melon landraces of Sandfa, El-Wahat el Bahria, fayoum and Brolussi, as well as Kahera-6, exhibited earliness for male and female flowers opening on 50% of the plants, while Ismaelawi and Waraki exhibited the opposite.
4) For yield and fruit quality, Ismaelawi and Waraki were superior for total yield (ton/ fed.), fruit yield/ plant, as well as average fruit weight, and average fruit length, width, while Fayoum melon landrace and Anannas El-Dokki recorded the lowest values for aforementioned characters.
5) Analysis of variance indicated that, all morphological traits were influenced by genetic background of melon landraces, except net assimilation rate. All the studied traits also differed greatly by seasonal effect, except plant height, number of nodes, on the main stem, leaf area at the first sample, as well as, net assimilation rate average fruit weight, fruit width, and total yield per plant.
6) Genetic variance was higher than phenotypic and environmental variances, for all studied traits, except earliness of anthesis as well as flesh thickness. Meanwhile heritability in broad sense was high for all studied traits except time of anthesis of male and female flowers, net assimilation rate and flesh thickness.
7) Gentic diversity analysis revealed that, there was a wide range of divergence between melon landraces, from (0.08) to (0.38) and the eleven melon landraces were distributed in five clusers, where Marsa matrouh landrace was found alone in the fifth group.
8) Wahat melon landrace was the least susceptible to infection when sown in infested soil with F. oxysporium F. sp. melonis being 8.3% of wilt disease, while Sandfa and Fayoum landraces were highly susceptible which recorded 13.5% and 11.5% of wilt disease, respetively.
9) On the other hand, Waraki and Anannas El-Dokki genotypes were less susceptible when sown in infested soil with Verticillium albo-atrum being 4.7% of wilt disease for each of them, while Sandfa and Fayoum melon landraces being 21.3% and 18.7%, respectively.
10) Total phenolic compounds were increased after infection, in Ismaelawi, Kenna and Waraki, while Brolussi landrace was less in their phenolic compound contents, when sown in infested soil with F.oxysporium F. sp. melonis.
11) Moreover, Ismaelawi and Kahera-6 melon landraces recorded the highest values of total phenols when sown in soil infested with Verticillium albo-atrum.