Differences between strawberry cultivars based on principal component analysis

Abstract

Strawberry culture is of extreme economic importance, especially for small producers, as it has the capacity to add value to small family farms, in addition to absorbing family labor. Principal component analysis (PCA) is a multivariate technique for modeling covariance structure, where a basic idea is to find latent variables that represent linear combinations of a group of variables under study, which in turn are related between itself. In this way, the objective of the work was estimated, through the analysis of main components (PCA), as relationships between development variables, products and fruit quality in different strawberry cultivars. The design used was a randomized block with 11 treatments, consisting of strawberry cultivars of Italian and American origins, with four replications. During the culture cycle, the following variables were evaluated: phyllochron, number of commercial (FC) and non-commercial (FNC) fruits, mass of commercial (MFC) and non-commercial (MFNC) fruits, total titratable acidity (AT), total soluble quantities (SST) and total soluble ratio, titratable acidity (SST / AT). The relationships between the variables were evaluated by the PCA analysis and the results were plotted on the Biplot graph. From the analysis, it was possible to identify the relationships between the variables that show how to cultivate the same photoperiod and the same characteristic origin. Growing short photoperiods are more productive, for example, as the neutral photoperiod has less phyllochron and less acidity. The increase in soluble solids can cause a reduction in acidity, which is one of the characteristics that add flavor to the fruit.