Papaya ( Carica papaya L.) Phenology under Different Agronomic Conditions in the Subtropics

Juan Alberto Cabrera, Axel Ritter, Vanesa Raya, Eudaldo Pérez and María Gloria Lobo
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Juan Alberto Cabrera: Producción Vegetal en Zonas Tropicales y Subtropicales, Instituto Canario de Investigaciones Agrarias, Carretera del Boquerón s/n, Valle de Guerra, 38270 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
Axel Ritter: Área de Ingeniería Agroforestal, Universidad de La Laguna, Ctra. General de Geneto, 2, 38200 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
Vanesa Raya: Producción Vegetal en Zonas Tropicales y Subtropicales, Instituto Canario de Investigaciones Agrarias, Carretera del Boquerón s/n, Valle de Guerra, 38270 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
Eudaldo Pérez: Oficina de Extensión Agraria y Desarrollo Rural de Tejina, Cabildo Insular de Tenerife, Camino Palermo, 2, 38260 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
María Gloria Lobo: Producción Vegetal en Zonas Tropicales y Subtropicales, Instituto Canario de Investigaciones Agrarias, Carretera del Boquerón s/n, Valle de Guerra, 38270 San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain

Agriculture, 2021, vol. 11, issue 2, 1-19

Abstract: European consumers have perceived that papaya fruits produced in subtropical areas (the Canary Islands and Mediterranean regions) do not have the desired quality at certain periods of the year. Thus, the development of technical and management strategies to optimize the yield and the quality of the fruit requires crop phenology studies. Meteorological variables (air temperature, relative humidity, and photosynthetically active radiation) and morphological characteristics (plant height, leaf emission rate, and leaf area) were recorded throughout the crop cycle. All the leaves and fruits were labeled in their anthesis week to calculate the source–sink ratio and to study the development and quality of the fruits. Data were collected in three commercial orchards representing two different types of systems, greenhouse and screenhouse, and two different regions: two plastic cover greenhouses located in the south (SP) and in the north (NP) of Tenerife, and one 40-mesh net screenhouse in the north of the island (NN). The selection of these cultivation systems and locations was made deliberately, so that the ambient variables within these crop protection structures were different throughout the cultivation cycle in order to better fit the model construction. The results suggested that in order to maintain good fruit quality, better environmental control is necessary inside the greenhouses and the screenhouse. Monitoring variables such as the growing degree days, the photosynthetically active radiation, and the number of fruits per plant leaf area ratio provided useful information for papaya production management in the Canary Islands and other subtropical areas, allowing farmers to predict harvest and fruit quality.

Keywords: meteorological variables; greenhouse; production; fruit quality; number of fruits/leaf area ratio (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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