In Brazil, the Bactris gasipaes palm is a very useful plant for food as a source of fruits or heart palm. The interest for this species is due to the precocity of the heart palm production, rusticity, straightening up, and palatability of the heart palm. Estimates of genetic parameters, such as repeatability, are very important and fundamental for breeding program. The objective of this research was to estimate the repeatability coefficients of the characters: plant height, plant diameter and heart palm weight, using variance analysis, principal components and structural analysis. It was also determined the minimum numbers of repetitions in order to determine critic levels of real prediction values of the individual. The repeatability coefficients of the stem base diameter, plant height and heart palm weight were of low magnitude (lower than 0.4), indicating irregular behavior from one evaluation to another. For plant height, three measures are necessary to have predictions with 80% confidence. For the same confidence, for stem base diameter and heart-of-palm weight six measures will be necessary.
breeding; correlation; Bactris gasipaes; heart palm; growing characteristics
