Early selection in passion fruit using correlation data between monthly and annual productivity

Abstract

^{The objective of this work was to determine the sampling seasons of productivity and yield components, in passion fruit, that should allow early selection for superior genotypes. One hundred eleven genotypes of yellow passion fruit, from South and Southeast Brazil, were evaluated during two consecutive years. Variables were assessed monthly for: yield per plant, number of fruits per plant and average fruit weight. The monthly and annual data of these variables were correlated to total yield accumulated in the two years. Among the monthly data, the third month provided the best correlation with the accumulated data. Positive and negative selections were simulated with the third month data and compared with selection based on the two years accumulated data. The data from the third month of the first year were adequate for fruit weight selection, but number of fruits and yield per plant would be better selected with data from the third month of the second year.}