Effect of pruning regimes on the production of passion fruit in Eldorado do Sul, RS, Brazil

Abstract

This research was carried out at the Estação Experimental Agronômica (Experimental Research Station) in Eldorado do Sul, RS, Brazil (30^o60'S, 51^o39'W), aiming to assess the effect of five pruning regimes on the production of Passion fruit, in 1987 and 1988. Passion fruit plants propagated by seeds were trained as cordon leaning the branches on two steel wires apart 0.60 m from each other, the first at 1.20 m and the second one at 1.80 m from the ground. Pruning regimes consisted of cutting off the tip of the main branch leaving only one leader, per plant, with different length according to the following treatments: 1.50 m; 3.00 m; 3.60 m; 5.10 m and 6.60 m. Picking was done in two distinct periods: from April to August, in 1987, and from January to June, in 1988. When the yields of each year were analysed separately, pruning treatments did not affect either the production per plant or per area, nor the mean fruit weight. However, when they were analysed together, the mean fruit weight of treatment 1 was higher than those of treatments 4 and 5, and not different statistically from those of treatments 2 and 3.