Effect of Paclobutrazol on botanical characters of flowers and fruits in the emergence of parthenocarpic mango cultivar Ataulfo

Abstract

The presence of parthenocarpic mangoes in the Ataulfo cultivar in Ecuador has caused a decrease in the production. This has led to an annual decrease in the productive area of this cultivar. The objective of the research was to evaluate botanical characters of flowers and fruits in the appearance of parthenocarpic mango in Ataulfo cultivar, this was carried out in two mango-producing areas in Palenque-Los Ríos and Cerecita-Guayas, 50 plants were randomly taken for each treatment with paclobutrazol (PBZ) and without (PBZ) in the two zones simultaneously in 2019 and 2020. The variables evaluated were: weekly flowering behavior, percentage of hermaphrodite and staminate flowers, number of leaves in the last foliar growth before flowering, number of panicles per tree, percentage of mangoes with seeds and parthenocarpics. Descriptive statistics were obtained for each variable, including the mean, median, mode, standard deviation, and variability coefficients. The ttest method was used between the samples from the two populations. Flowering with PBZ began in week 22 in Cerecita and in week 27 in Palenque. All the evaluated variables that had PBZ had statistical significance except for the number of parthenocarpic mangoes with and without PBZ in Palenque. In the areas where PBZ was applied, it was possible to advances plant flowering by two weeks in the two study areas and with an increase in the percentage of female flowers vs. staminate by panicles.