Influence of high density planting and spatial arrangement on growth and development in Musa AAA Simmonds

Abstract

Banana is after apple, the most consumed fruit in the world for its nutritional contribution. Given its importance, it is necessary to advance in the development of agronomic management strategies that contribute to increase productivity and offer alternatives to regulate the consequences derived from the seasonality of production in the Urabá area (Colombia). For this, the clone Williams (Musa AAA Simmonds), at different planting densities (2000, 2500, 3000 and 3500 plants ha-1), different population arrangements (triangle, rectangle and double furrow), compared with a relative control (1700 plants ha-1 in triangle) was evaluated. The design used was randomized complete blocks in factorial arrangement of 4 x 3 + 1 (densities x arrays + control). The variables height and perimeter of the pseudostem, number of leaves from planting to harvest, leaf area index (IAF), light extinction coefficient, number of suckers and developmental stages (days elapsed after flowering and harvest) were determined. An analysis of general variance was carried out and another one excluding the control. The Tukey test (P <0.05) was applied to the qualitative variables and contrasts of orthogonal polynomials were made to test the linear and quadratic effects of the population density factor. The results indicated that the high planting densities and the population arrangements had a negative effect on the perimeter of the pseudostem and the height of the main sucker, favored the LAI, influenced the extinction coefficient, but did not affect the development of the plants.