Agrometeorological relations in banana cultivation under different levels of water stress

Abstract

Agrometeorological variables for the prediction of phenological phenomena and verification of thermal and photoperiodic needs were used in the planning of cultural data from several crops, including a banana tree. The objective of this study was to characterize the phenological phenomena and the exploitation of banana cultivars in function of the thermal sum and photothermal units under irrigated and non-irrigated system. The experiment was conducted at the School of Agronomy of the Federal University of Goiás, Goiânia-GO. The banana plants were planted on 10/30/2013 and evaluated until 12/15/2017, totaling four production cycles, in a spacing of 3.5 x 2.0 m, and stand of 1428 plants ha-1. A randomized block design was used, with four replicates in a 2x4 factorial scheme (2 water regimes; 4 cultivars). The agrometeorological requirements were determined from the sum of degrees-day (DD) and the accumulation of photothermal units (PU). For the sum of DD and PU, cultivars developed differently, showing influence on the production cycle. It was possible to establish that BRS Conquista has the longest cycle with higher DD and PU, followed by SH3640 Graúda and BRS Japira with medium cycles, and BRS Platina with a short cycle and lower DD and PU.