Banana is one of the tropical fruits more consumed in the world, answering for approximately 10% of the world trade of fruits. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the growth and production of three banana cultivars under three planting systems, in two production cycles, in the period from March 2004 to October 2006, in Janaúba, Minas Gerais. The experimental design was in randomized blocks and two statistical analyses: first: Prata Anã in six different planting systems; second: factorial 2 x 2 + 1, with four repetitions and six useful plants per parcel. The evaluated characteristics were: plant height, pseudostem circumference, total number of leaves, number of green leaves in the crop, number of days from planting to harvest, bunch weight, productivity, number of hands and fingers per bunch. The appraised characteristics were submitted to the variance analysis, being the treatments effects compared by the test of Tukey to 5% of probability. The cultivar mixture and the usage of borders did not influence most of the growth characteristics on the three studied cultivars. The cultivar Thap Maeo was superior to the Caipira in most of the appraised characteristics in the first and second cycles. The planting system with one border was superior. The analysis of the cultivar Prata Anã presented significant difference for the characteristics of green leaves number in the crop in the second cycle, number of hands/ bunch and number of fingers/bunch inside of the six planting systems.
Musa spp.; mixtures; cultivars
