Post-harvest characterization of banana genotypes of the terra subgroup produced under edaphoclimatic conditions of Vale do Ribeira, SP

Abstract

The plantain can be called cooking bananas which belongs to Terra subgroup that presents as main differences to the other subgroups large fruits and high content of starch. These fruits can be consumed cooked, fried or roasted. Plantain is marketed with prices higher than those practiced for the bananas of Prata subgroup, reason why the interest in cultivation of this type of banana is increasing. The banana trees of this subgroup are susceptible to black Sigatoka, reasonably resistant yellow Sigatoka, tolerant to Panama disease, moderately damaged by the nematodes and highly attacked by the rhizome drill, reason why this banana field has short duration, where the mother plant is harvested with good production, the daughter plant has intermediary production and the granddaughter has low production. Despite the efforts made to improve banana and plantain from man-selected natural germplasm, Brazil devotes little importance to plantains. Therefore, this work aimed to evaluate the post-harvest quality of banana genotypes of the Terra subgroup under the edaphoclimatic conditions of the Ribeira Valley, SP. The experiment was carried out at the experimental farm of the São Paulo Agribusiness Technology Agency, APTA Vale do Ribeira, located in the municipality of Pariquera-Açu, SP, Brazil, where ten plantain genotypes, developed in the breeding program of Embrapa, will be evaluated. The experimental design will be in randomized blocks, with ten treatments (cultivars) and four replications. For all treatments it will be used the same system of pest and disease control, plants management and fertilization. The fruits post-harvest quality will be by measured by the following evaluations: fruit fresh pulp mass, shell mass, fruit length and diameter, shell thickness, pulp firmness, soluble solids content, pH, titratable acidity, ratio, sugar and starch content in fruits.