Avaliação periódica de mudas de maracujazeiro conforme o índice de qualidade de Dickson.

Abstract

The passion fruit belongs to the Passifloraceae family and the most expressive genus, Passiflora, has its origins in Tropical America. Species of this genus are cultivated, mainly due to the nutritional characteristics of their fruits and pharmacological properties, it is considered an alternative agricultural crop for family farmers due to its rapid economic return. The quality of the passion fruit seedling is an essential requirement to have a good productivity, that's why indexes that express relationships between the growth parameters are a good tool to identify the seedling quality. Dickson's quality index informs the quality standard of seedlings through the analysis of parameters such as height, stem diameter and dry matter. This study aimed to evaluate yellow passion fruit seedlings at different phenological stages through the Dickson quality index, investigate the occurrence of pests and diseases and suggest changes in the management of seedlings in nurseries. The research took place from June 5, 2021 to June 30, 2021, in the greenhouse of the Education and Health Center of the Federal University of Campina Grande, campus of Cuité, PB. The experimental design was completely randomized, with 5 treatments and 4 replications. The morphometric data obtained were submitted to analysis of variance and the means were compared by Tukey test at 5% probability, in addition to calculating the IQD. The passion fruit seedlings were responsive, and the results presented showed an increasing trend of the IQD. Even if the final result has not reached the ideal IQD, it can be said that seedlings with 60 days of cultivation are already ready to be cultivated in the field. The yellow passion fruit seedlings did not suffer injuries that reached the level of damage in relation to pests and diseases. The suggestion to improve seedling performance and Dickson's quality index will be to harden the plants away from each other, providing greater efficiency of sunlight in the seedling collection, improving the robustness of the collection.