Cobertura plástica e densidade de plantio na produção e qualidade das frutas de Physalis peruviana L.

Abstract

Physalis peruviana L. is a species belonging to the Solanaceae family, which has been incorporated in small fruit plantations with high yielding potential for subtropical regions. The fruit physalis is considered exotic in Brazil and has great nutritional value and economic. These characteristics have attracted a growing interest from consumers and producers. The objective of this study was to evaluate the production and fruits quality of P. peruviana L., produced with or without plastic cover over the plant canopy and two planting densities ( 0.5 and 1.0 m between plants ) and 3.0 m between planting lines. The experimental design was randomized blocks in a factorial 2 x 2 with 6 blocks and 10 plants per plot. We evaluated the characteristics of productive plants such as number of fruit, production, estimated productivity and fruit growth and ecophysiological characteristics such as leaf area index, chlorophyll, net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, transpiration and carbon internal and external. We also assessed the qualitative characteristics of fruits such as fresh weight, length, diameter, color, amount of total anthocyanins, vitamin C, ash, total soluble solids, sucrose, glucose, total sugars, total acidity, firmness and moisture. Plants arranged in denser spacing (3.0 x 0.5 m ) yielded 10.91 t.ha-1, yield nearly 50% higher than that presented by the plants spaced lower density (3.0 x 1.0 m ) , which was 5.97 t.ha-1. The cover did not affect the productivity. Analyzing the quality parameters such as brightness, sucrose ratio, vitamin C, total anthocyanins, sugars and glucose, it was concluded that these were also better in denser spacing, not requiring the use of the plastic cover over the plant canopy. With these results it was concluded that the higher planting density and planting without plastic cover over the plant canopy result in better production and fruits quality of Physalis peruviana L.