Yellow passion fruit performance in organic crop under mulch

Abstract

The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of mulch on clay loam and sandy loam soils on the start harvest, number of fruits per plant, yield and quality of yellow passion fruits in organic crop. A complete randomized block design with five treatments and four replicates of five plants each was used. Treatments corresponded to different percentages of mulch of the area occupied by the plant (3 x 3 m), extending from the center of the planting line to the planting row in 0% without mulch (T1); 25% (T2); 50% (T3); 75% (T4) and 100% (T5). Mulch anticipated the harvest in comparison to crop in uncovered soil in both types of soil. The number of fruits per plant and yield increased in a quadratic function with maximum point of 38.6 fruits plant-1 and 5,182.0 kg ha-1 with 75.7% and 78.0% of soil cover, respectively. Mulch on clay loam soil did not provide increase in the average fruit mass and did not change the quality of fruits in relation to control fruits.