Climate variations along the year tend to strongly affect the agricultural performance of several carrot cultivars grown in Brazil today, including those mostly adapted to a given climatic condition. The performance of cv. Alvorada was compared to other carrot cvs., including three of the Brasília group (Calibrada, Alta Seleção and RL) and Nantes, Forto and Carandaí, in the Summer and Autumn-Winter in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. The resistance to leaf blight (Alternaria dauci), incidence of green shoulder, total yield, percentage and yield of commercial roots were evaluated. The experimental design was of randomized blocks with four repetitions and seven treatments for each growing season. Each plot consisted of ten or eleven 1.0 m rows spaced 0.20 m, in a total area of 2.0 or 2.2 m² per plot and measured area of 1.4 or 1.8 m² for Autumn-Winter and Summer, respectively. In the Summer cropping, cultivar Alvorada presented higher total yield in relation to cvs. Carandaí, Forto and Nantes; however, not differing from cvs. Brasília Calibrada, Brasília Alta Seleção and Brasília RL. Moreover, cultivar Alvorada presented higher resistance to leaf blight while the percentage of green shoulder was not statistically different from the other cvs. Significant differences in total yield were observed during Autumn-Winter only among the cvs. Brasília Calibrada and Carandaí. Greater resistance to leaf blight was observed in cv. Alvorada in both growing seasons and in cvs. Forto, Nantes and Brasília Calibrada during Autumn-Winter.
Daucus carota; planting season; yield
