Maturation and quality of ‘Palmer’ and ‘Espada Vermelha’ mango fruits in the Brazilian semi-arid

Abstract

Brazil, the seventh largest producer of mango in the world, has the semi-arid region as the main producer in the country. The northern part of the state of Minas Gerais produces fruit with great regularity throughout the year, especially in off-season periods, thanks to the technology of floral induction. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of formulations that alter the physiological and nutritional condition of the plants in the management of maturation and quality of ‘Palmer’ and ‘Espada Vermelha’ mango fruits. An experiment was conducted with two cultivars, ‘Palmer’ and ‘Espada Vermelha’, using a randomized complete block design with nine treatments consisting of four products (HOLD®, SCO®, MOVER® and FRC®) in two (30 and 10 days before harvest) or three applications (30, 20 and 10 days before harvest), plus one control. The evaluations focused on the time to physiological maturity and yield and quality of fruits. HOLD® and SCO® were efficient in delaying the physiological maturity of the fruits, delaying the harvest by 21 days in the ‘Espada Vermelha’ mango tree and 33 days in ‘Palmer’ mango tree. MOVER® and FRC® anticipated harvesting the ‘Espada Vermelha’ mango (harvested ripe) in a week and were not efficient for the ‘Palmer’ mango (harvested green). MOVER®, HOLD® and SCO® increased the color of the peel (intense red) and maintained longer the firmness of the fruit in the post-harvest. FRC® was not effective in maintaining the quality characteristics of fruit (red color, soluble solids and firmness) at post-harvest of ‘Espada Vermelha’ mango. HOLD® and MOVER® promoted increases in fruit weight, which allowed higher yields by 4 and 2.7 t ha(-1), respectively, in the ‘Palmer’ cultivar.