Effect of pruning on apical dominance, agronomic traits, and post-harvest quality of pitaya in the Amazon forest biome •

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the influence of cladode pruning on apical dominance in the production and post-harvest of pitaya fruits. The experiment was carried out at the Sítio das Pitaya do Pará, which is in the city of Tomé-Açu, State of Pará, Brazil. A randomized block design (RBD) in a 3 x 2 factorial scheme was used, with four replications for each treatment. Treatments consisted of three stand positions in the field (beginning, middle, and end of row) and two pruning regimes (with and without pruning). The interaction of factors Pruning and Stand position (P*SP) inhibited sprouting, while the Pruning factor provided heavier fruits and with a better pulp/peel ratio. Thus, cladode pruning provided benefits to plant management, production parameters, and post-harvest quality.

Pitaya Nutrition, Biology, and Biotechnology: A Review

“…Pitaya plants need regular pruning with a clean tool to avoid fungus and insect infestation, balance plant weight on the trellis, increase light penetration into tangled middle stems, and induce flowering. Pitaya pruning involves trimming back long, broken, tangled, or dead stems once annually in young plants and three times in mature plants [ 23 , 135 ]. A study on H. undatus pruning shows that cane pruning induces maximum flowering and produces new shoots as compared to spur, spur–cane combined, and sanitary pruning [ 136 ].…”