Quality of ‘Imperial’ pineapple infructescence in function of nitrogen and potassium fertilization

Abstract

The quality aspects of pineapple infructescences are influenced by nutritional management. Thus, the objective was to evaluate the physical-chemical characteristics of the infructescences of cv. Imperial, submitted to fertilization with nitrogen (N) and potassium (K). The experimental design was a randomized complete block design with three replicates and the treatments were arranged in a factorial scheme according to the Plan Plueba III matrix, which consisted of a combination of five doses of N: 15; 90; 150; 210 and 285 kg ha-1 and five doses of K: 21.6; 129.6; 216.0; 302.4 and 410.4 kg ha-1.The measured characteristics of the infructescencewere fresh mass; length; diameter; firmness; yield of pulp and crown; coloring of the shell and pulp; soluble solids (SS); titratable acidity (TA); SS/AT ratio and ascorbic acid. The elevation of the K2O doses to 410.4 kg ha-1 increased the infructescence mass with crown, length and diameter of the infructescence and the soluble solids content, being harvested in the plants that received this fertilization, infructescence with the average values of 632.34 g, 9.0 cm, 84.80 mm and 16.42%, respec­tively. Plants that received N doses of 285 kg ha-1 favored pulp yield, a * and b * coloring index of the bark and the SS/AT ratio, giving mean values of 44.50%, 9.64, 33.06 and 30.10, respectively. Doses of 285 kg ha-1 of N and 410.4 kg ha-1 of K2O promote improvements in the physical-chemical characteristics of infructescences of ‘Imperial’ pineapple.