Culture of the sugar apple:characterization of fruits,germination and attributes of quality required by the system of comercialization

by Sousa, Saulo Almeida

This work had as objective to characterize fruits sugar apple genotypes(Annona squamosa L.) proceeding from the city of Presidente Dutra-BA, to evaluatethe germination of seeds of sugar apple submitted the treatments pre-germinativeand storage and to identify the attributes of quality of the fruits required for the systemof commercialization in the CEASA of Salvador-BA. An amount of 30 plants werecharacterized by the physical and chemical characteristics, observing variability forthe majority of the characteristics evaluated with the formation of ten distinct groups,in accordance with analysis of the main components formed by the characters massof the fruit: pulp, rind and number of seeds. For the evaluation of the germination,extracted seeds of ripe fruits had been submitted to scarification with sandpaper,alcohol vinegar, thermal shock (24 hours -18ºC), imbibition in Stimulate®, gibberellicacid 400 mg L-1, isolated and associated in ten treatments. The experiment was leadunder controlled conditions, in a randomized design with four repetitions of 25 seedsin three different periods of refrigerated storage (0, 30 and 60 days). It got effect ofthe treatments and the storage in the percentage of germination and the index ofgermination speed, evidencing itself that gibberellic acid associated or not with theuse of sandpaper and vinegar and the thermal shock had been favorable for theovercoming of the dormency in sugar apple. Research carried out throughwholesalers of the CEASA of Salvador showed that the size of the fruits is the mainattribute to the classification of sugar apple, that the thickness of the rind is importantfor the maintenance of the fruit quality in carrying.