English

Eduardo Monteiro Santos,Francisca Gislene Albano,Ítalo Herbert Lucena Cavalcante,Gabriel Barbosa Da Silva Júnior

doi:10.14393/bj-v31n5a2015-26360

Abstract

Pawpaw ( Carica papaya L.), also known papaya, is a fruit species with economic and social importance for Brazil, the second main world producer. Although this characteristic the relationship between N and K nutrition and papaya fruit quality has been poorly studied. Thus, an objective with this study was to evaluate the effect of nitrogen and potassium for papaya (pawpaw) fruit quality produced in North eastern Brazil. The experimental design consisted of randomised blocks, with treatments distributed in a factorial arrangement (4 x 4), using four nitrogen doses (320, 400, 480 and 560 g of N plant -1 ) and four potassium doses (380, 475, 570 e 665 g of K 2 O plant -1 ), containing with four replications of three plants each. The fruit characteristics, such as fruit mass, titratable acidity, soluble solids, pulp pH and fruit length and width, were recorded. The fruit qualityof pawpaw depend on nitrogen and potassium leaf concentration. The higher fruit quality parameters regarding to soluble solids, pH, fruit length and fruit mass are associated to 45.30 g kg -1 leaf N concentration and 37.55 leaf K concentration.

Highlights

Pawpaw (Carica papaya L.), known papaya, is native to Central America but is distributed throughout the tropical areas of the world (HUI, 2006), including Brazil, where this fruit species present economic and social importance, since it is the second main world producer (FAOSTAT, 2014).Papaya is a fast and continuously growing plant, which provides fruits all the year round, an abundant supply of nutrients at regular intervals is needed to sustain good growth and production (FONTES et al, 2010; SANTOS et al, 2014)
For papaya Hui (2006) observed that fruit quality and yield of papaya fruits are greatly influenced by NK fertilizer application, and nitrogen presents especial hole because almost 23% of all nitrogen absorbed by papaya roots is exported to flowers and fruits (LYRA et al, 2010), nitrogen fertilizing with high amounts usually is associated to higher papaya yields and better fruit quality (MARINHO et al, 2008)
Nitrogen In the present study three correlation results were relevant for nitrogen leaf concentration and pawpaw fruit quality

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Pawpaw (Carica papaya L.), known papaya, is native to Central America but is distributed throughout the tropical areas of the world (HUI, 2006), including Brazil, where this fruit species present economic and social importance, since it is the second main world producer (FAOSTAT, 2014). Despite nitrogen is the nutrient more directly correlated to higher increases of papaya yield, its effect on papaya fruit quality has been poorly quantified and, in most studies it is not favourable. Despite the economic importance of papaya for Brazil, an adequate fertilizing management for nitrogen and potassium has not being defined and accepted by researchers as a standard for high fruit quality and yields. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of nitrogen and potassium for papaya (pawpaw) fruit quality produced in North eastern Brazil

MATERIAL AND METHODS

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

CONCLUSIONS