Número de folhas por planta e ponto de colheita para produção de mini melão Cantaloupe

Abstract

Changing consumer habits is accompanied by structural change of families in recent years. The emergence of increasingly smaller families influences the demand for smaller food portions. In this context, there is the formation of a new market niche, of mini fruits. Thus, the objective of the study was to determine the best number of leaves conducted above the fruiting branch (five, ten and fifteen leaves) and the time of harvest (harvested and collected after the fall) more suitable for the production of mini Cantaloupe melons in pots. The experimental design was a randomized blocks, in 3x2 factorial design with four replications. The obtained fruits were evaluated for weight, length, width, ratio of width and length, peel thickness, pulp thickness, thickness of the green pulp halo, diameter of the internal cavity and soluble solids. It was observed that the treatments affected all variables, except for the ratio between length and width of fruit and thickness of the green pulp halo. More conducted leaves provided larger fruits with thicker pulp and peel, wider and higher solids soluble, while collected fruits showed greater length and smaller diameter of the internal cavity. It was concluded that, for the experimental conditions, the conduction of plants with fifteen leaves and harvest with a further plant fixed fruit is recommended for the production of mini cantaloupe melons.