Fruit attributes depend on cladode length and width in Opuntia ficus-indica variety ‘Rojo Pelón’ in Zacatecas, Mexico

Abstract

Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Miller is an important crop in Mexico and around the world. Thisspecies grows in a wide range of environmental conditions. This implies a great variabilityin fruit yield and fruit ripening. The aims of this three-year study were: i) to compare O.ficus-indica fruit and cladode size attributes among years by means of the Tukey test, andii) to estimate O. ficus-indica fruit attributes dependence on length or width of 1-year oldfruiting cladode measures for the ‘Rojo Pelón’ variety through the boundary-line approach.Data from 169 terminal 1-year old fruiting cladodes and their 1,281 fruits were collectedduring 2012, 2013, and 2014 from an experimental orchard in Zacatecas, Mexico. Theboundary-line approach was used to identify the dependence of number of fruits, mean fruitweight or load per cladode on 1-year fruiting cladode’s length or width. Influence of rainfallwas identified increasing the fruit weight per cladode, but not the number of fruits. Fruitingoccurred when cladodes have at least 16 cm length and 11 cm width. Cladodes with ? 18.5cm to ? 50 cm of length are linked to the vertex (X= 37.7 cm, Y= 154.1 g) and cladodes with? 12 cm to ? 25 cm of width are linked to the vertex (X=17.5 cm, Y= 156.8 g). Pruning basedon these cladode sizes may reduce variability of fruit yield and increase the probability ofhaving 105.7 g (or more) of mean fruit weight per cladode leaving eight fruits or more withan acceptable commercial size.