Abstract:

Under two different kinds of nutrient management systems, a field experiment by taking tissue-cultured plant of Brazilian Cavendish banana (Musa AAA Giant Cavendish ‘Brazil’) as seedling was conducted to establish a fast and accurately quantitative method to forecast the fruit maturity by determination and comparison of finger length, girth and fresh weight as well as the ratio of peel to pulp of every hand per fruit bunch, and by observation the percentage of inflorescence emergence and harvested plants of every treatment at weekly intervals. The results showed that the finger length of banana increased progressively with time, and the same were true for the finger girth, weight and ratio of pulp to peel in fresh weight. The finger length and weight appeared to be variable among hands, but the finger girth stable, which all were significantly affected by nutrient management system and could not be used to forecast maturity of Brazilian Cavendish banana. The date of harvest was considerably influenced by the nutrient management system as well. However, there was no significant difference of the ratio of pulp to peel at harvest either among the 1st to 3rd hands or among the 4th to 6th hands under both nutrient management systems. Therefore, the ratio value of pulp to peel could be used as a quantitative index to judge the fruit maturity of Brazilian Cavendish banana. When the average ratio value reached either 1.65 for the 1st to 3rd hands or 1.54 for the 4th to 6th hands, the 75% fruit maturity was obtained.