Phenology, production and quality of fruit borne by pecan cultivars

Resumo

Since cultivation of pecan trees is recent in Brazil, production and quality parameters have not been well elucidated. Agronomic characterization of cultivars is essential for the consolidation of their cultivation in southern Rio Grande do Sul (RS) state, Brazil. This study aimed to evaluate phenology, production and quality of fruit borne by seven pecan cultivars. The experiment was conducted in a commercial orchard and at the Embrapa Clima Temperado in Pelotas, RS, throughout three production cycles (2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21). Regarding production, a completely randomized design with 10 replicates was used for evaluating phenology, effective fruiting, production per plant, productivity and accumulated production. Concerning nut quality, a completely randomized design with 25 replicates per plant was used for evaluating the number of fruits per kg, fruit length, fruit diameter, fruit mass, almond mass, shell mass, shell thickness and yield. Agronomic characteristics, both productive and qualitative ones, varied among cultivars and production cycles. Cultivars under investigation were ‘Shawnee’, ‘Barton’, ‘Mohawk’, ‘Desirable’, ‘Elliott’, ‘Farley’ and ‘Success’. ‘Shawnee’ showed precocity in both vegetative and flowering stages in the 2018-19 cycle. Cultivars showed delay in the 2019-20 phenological cycle. Some cultivars showed dichogamy exchange. ‘Mohawk’ had the highest effective fruiting in the 2018-19 cycle while ‘Barton’ had the lowest effective fruiting in the 2019-20 cycle. ‘Barton’ showed decrease in its production and productivity in the years under evaluation. Regarding accumulated production, ‘Desirable’, ‘Elliott’ and ‘Shawnee’ reached the highest production. ‘Mohawk’ exhibited the largest fruit.