Tropicultura (Jan 2010)
Efecto del desmane y de la modalidad de cosecha sobre las características y producción de racimos de plátano tipo Francés FHIA-21
Abstract
Two experiments of dehandig intensity (DI) removing 0, 1 or 2 true hands were done in the first generation of FHIA-21 plantain in the Caribbean of Costa Rica during year 2006. One experiment was harvest using the modality (HM) of pre-established age (A) of the bunch and the other considering the pre-established age of the bunch in combination with fruit thickness (AT). Bunch characteristics were measured at harvest. Bunch weight and its fruit number decreased as DI increased in both HM (A: P< 0.0081; AT: P< 0.0067). The number of effective leaves and days from dehanding to harvest did not vary (P> 0.3174) with DI nor with HM. Central fruit thickness of the inner row differed among DI in the majority of A-HM hands (P< 0.0557) and only in the three first hands of seven bunch hands from AT-HM (P< 0.0153). When harvest was performed through A-HM, the central fruit length of the inner row was larger with the DI but the difference was large enough to be significant (P< 0.0505) in the third and five hands in bunches of six hands. For ATHM no differences (P> 0.1398) were observed. Hand conformation variables did not differ among DI for all hands from AT-HM (P> 0.0835) and for the majority of those hands in A-HM (P> 0.1440). In this experimental conditions HM determine bunch response to DI.
