Pineapple plants of the cv. Pérola, the most cultivated in Brazil, form an excessive number of slips during the same period of the fruit development. In a commercial plantation of the North Coast region of Bahia State, Brazil, was carried out a study in order to evaluate the effect of slip thinning on vegetative and productive aspects of 'Pérola' pineapple, grown without irrigation. This paper presents the results on fresh and dry matter accumulation of the different organs of the plant and discusses correlations between vegetative and fruit characters. In a completely randomized blocks design, with a split plot arrangement and seven replications, were studied six treatments represented by the control (without thinning) and five levels of intensity of slips thinning, and three dates of evaluation. By way of analyses of variance and correlation and means comparison tests were evaluated characters of vegetative growth expressed by fresh and dry matters (whole plant, roots, stem, leaves, peduncle and slips) obtained at 90, 120 and 150 days after flowering forcing, and their relationship with some fruit characters. Thinning favored the accumulation of dry matter in slips kept and in the fruit crown, which is another type of plantlet. Total removal of slips determined the change of the correlation between fruit and crown weight from a negative to a positive one. The distribution of dry matter among organs showed partition in favor of the fruit, with reduction of stem, peduncle and leaves dry matters during the fruit maturation phase, from 120 days after flowering forcing treatment.
Ananas comosus (L.) Merril; cultural practice; growth; dry matter partition
