Yield and quality of fruits of hybrids of yellow passion fruit in northern Parana/Producao e qualidade de frutos hibridos de maracujazeiro-amarelo no norte do Parana

Nowadays there are fourteen cultivars of yellow passion fruit on the National Register of Cultivars of the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture. The improvement of plant breeding in this crop is of great importance to provide new cultivars adapted to the producing regions. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the production and fruit quality of thirteen hybrids of yellow passion fruit plants grown in the northern Parana. The evaluations were performed during two cycles of crop production from April to July 2009 and from January to July 2010 with weekly harvests of ripe fruits. The production was determined by weighing the total output and counting the number of fruits per plant. The evaluated quality characteristics of the fruits were: weight, length, diameter, diameter/length ratio, thickness, pulp yield, total soluble solids (TSS), total titratable acidity (TTA) and TSS/TTA ratio. Hybrids '66' and '65' respectively showed the highest yield and greatest number of fruits in the accumulated of the two crops. The fruits of the hybrid '72' stood out on desirable quality characteristics for fresh consumption, while the hybrid '69' showed important features for the juice industry.