Dragon fruit (Hylocereus sp.) cv. yellow: shoot production and relationship with climatic variables

Abstract

The study evaluated the relationship between shoot production in dragon fruit (Hylocereus sp.) cv. yellow and climatic variables. The trial was carried out in San Mateo, in the province of Alajuela, Costa Rica; during the months of February 2017 to December 2019.

The variables evaluated were: number of vegetative shoots (NBV), number of reproductive shoots (NBR), rainfall (P in millimeters); relative humidity (RH in percentage), average temperature (Tp in degrees centigrade), maximum temperature (Tmax in degrees centigrade), and minimum temperature (Tmin in degrees centigrade). Spearman correlations were obtained between all variables.

The number of vegetative shoots did not obtain significant correlations with any of the other variables. The number of reproductive shoots presented a significant positive correlation with the variables of minimum temperature: (0.48**); average temperature (0.34*) and rainfall (0.33*); therefore, the higher the precipitation, average temperature and minimum temperature, the greater the number of reproductive shoots.

Other significant correlations of the number of vegetative and reproductive shoots with the climatic variables obtained in months prior to budding were obtained. The production of vegetative shoots did not present a defined pattern throughout the evaluated period, while the production of reproductive shoots occurred only in the initial and middle stages of the rainy season. Generally, at the emergence of reproductive shoots, the production of vegetative shoots was low or null.