An experiment was conducted in a greenhouse with the objective to evaluate the quality of the fruits of sweet passion fruit cultivated under deficiency of macronutrients and boron. Eight treatments with four replicates in a randomized complete block design were set up as follow: complete nutrient solution, -N, -P, -K, -Ca, -Mg, -S and -B. The experimental unity was a plastic box filled with 46 kg of river sand containing two plants irrigated with the nutrient solutions. All deficiencies reduced the fruit number per plant, and under Mg deficiency no flowers were formed. None of the nutrition deficiencies influence the mean weight of the fruits, the number of seeds per fruit, the length of the fruit and the percentage of juice. The deficiencies of N and P increased peel thickness and concentration in the fruit and they reduced seed percentage in the fruit. The deficiencies of N, P and K reduced the concentration of total soluble solids; K reduced the total titratable acidity; P reduced the pH and increased the vitamin C concentration, while the vitamin C concentration was reduced by the deficiencies of N, K and S. The characteristics of the fruits were not influenced by the deficiencies of Ca and B.
Passiflora alata Curtis; mineral nutrition; °Brix; vitamin C
