Brassinosteroid analogue effects on the yield of yellow passion fruit plants (Passiflora edulis f. flavicarpa)

The effects of successive brassinosteroid analogue (BR) applications (0.1 mg l(-1) of brassmosteroid analogue BB-16) were evaluated on commercial yellow passion fruit (Passiflora edulis f.flavicarpa) orchards in the first year of production. The treatments applied were: control, BR-1 (I BR application shortly after the first flowers appeared), BR-2, BR-3, BR-4 and BR-5 (BR application in two, three, four and five consecutive weeks after the appearance of the first flowers, respectively). The fruits were collected for seven consecutive weeks (105 fruits treatment(-1)) and fruit mass, length and diameter, soluble solid contents; pulp mass and peel thickness were evaluated in the laboratory. Multivariate analysis was performed in order to determine whether there were differences among the treatments taking into account all the measurements made. BR-3 was the most promising treatment because it produced the highest number of fruits plant(-1) (81.5) compared to the control (53.5) and the soluble solid content was 1 degrees Brix greater than the control. The BR-3 treatment resulted in a 65% increase in the estimated yield of the passion fruit plants, corresponding to 20 t ha(-1) compared to the control yield of 12 t ha(-1). The results showed that BB-16 sprayed during a period of reproductive development can increase the number of fruits per plant. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.