O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o manejo de podas em cultivares de amoreira-preta (Rubus spp.), submetidas à poda drástica de verão, em regiões subtropicais. O experimento foi conduzido em blocos ao acaso, em arranjo fatorial 2x7 (podas x cultivares), no Município de Lavras, MG. Foram utilizadas as cultivares Comanche, Caingangue, Choctaw, Tupy, Guarani, Brazos e Cherokee, que receberam poda convencional (controle) e poda drástica de verão. Foram avaliados dados fenológicos, vegetativos e produtivos nos ciclos de produção 2012/2013 e 2013/2014, além de características físico-químicas dos frutos e da incidência de doenças, no último ciclo de produção. A poda drástica de verão aumenta a produção das cultivares em regiões subtropicais. Não há diferença na qualidade dos frutos colhidos de plantas submetidas aos sistemas de poda avaliados. A poda drástica de verão não é eficiente na redução ou no controle de doenças.

The objective of this work was to evaluate the influence of fig (Ficus carica) cultivars grown in subtropical regions on the physicochemical, rheological, and sensorial characteristics of the canned figs. Fresh fruits of the cultivars were analyzed for length, diameter, unit mass, total soluble solids, total titratable acidity, pH, total soluble solids/total titratable acidity ratio, and color. Canned figs were evaluated for titratable acidity, pH, color, texture profile, and sensory characteristics. The different physicochemical characteristics of the fresh figs influenced those of the obtained canned fruits. The canned figs from 'Lemon' and 'Pingo de Mel' presented the lowest and highest pH, respectively, whereas those from 'Troiano' showed the highest total titratable acidity. As for color, after processing, the canned figs, in general, presented a more greenish and darker color than the fresh fruits. The canned figs from 'Brunswick' and 'Troiano' had the lowest acceptance, whereas those from 'Bêbera Branca' and 'Roxo de Valinhos', the greatest. Less acid and softer canned figs are more widely accepted, which can be obtained from all cultivars, except from Brunswick and Troiano.

This study aims to evaluate the duration of the phenological stages and determine the adaptability and stability of reproductive and vegetative phases of peach trees under tropics with the purpose of optimizing the production system. The experiment was set up in a randomized plot design with 23 cultivars (‘Aurora-1’, ‘Biuti’, ‘Bonão’, ‘Centenário’, ‘Charme’, ‘Delicioso Precoce’, ‘Diamante’, ‘Douçura-2’, ‘Douradão’, ‘Dourado-2’, ‘Eldorado’, ‘Flordaprince’, ‘Jóia-3’, ‘Kampai’, ‘Libra’, ‘Maciel’, ‘Maravilha’, ‘Marli’, ‘Okinawa’, ‘Ouromel-4’, ‘Premier’, ‘Régis’, and ‘Tropical’) in 2014-2016. The average duration (in days) for the three years, between pruning day and each phenological stage (OS - sprouted buds had opened, onset of flowering – OF, full bloom – FB, end of flowering – EF, beginning of fruit harvest - BH, and end of harvest - EH) in each plot, was evaluated through visual observations including the chill hours accumulation(CA) of each cultivar for accumulated number of hours with temperatures (≤7.2°C), (≤12°C) and (≥25℃), the thermal demand, expressed in degree-days of development (GDD) and the adaptability and stability of OS and EH. ‘Eldorado’ was the latest-ripening cultivar and the precocious cultivars were earliest ripening ‘Aurora-1’, ‘Centenário’, ‘Flordaprince’, ‘Kampai’ when considering OS, OF, FB and EF. The cultivar ‘Eldorado’ was sooner considering BH and EH, but it has a high standard deviation; that is, high variation among the years. The latest, when considering BH and EH, was the cultivar ‘Biuti’. Overall, 2016 was the year with the highest CA (≤7.2 ℃ and ≤12 ℃) and with more hours under warm temperatures (≥25 ℃) for OS, OF and FB. Regarding GDD until OS, OF and FB the cultivar with the highest GDD was ‘Eldorado’ and the lowest were ‘Aurora-1’, ‘Centenário’, ‘Flordaprince’, ‘Jóia-3’, ‘Kampai’, ‘Okinawa’, ‘Régis’ and ‘Tropical’. ‘Biuti’ had the highest GDD for BH while the lowest was ‘Eldorado’. ‘Douçura-2’ had general adaptability for OS and EH. The most precocious cultivars, with the greatest adaptability for sprouting and flowering in the tropics, were ‘Aurora-1’, ‘Joía-3’, ‘Kampai’, and ‘Tropical’.

Citrus greening disease, also known as huanglongbing (HLB), is the most serious vector-borne bacterial disease of citrus world-wide ^1,2 . There is an immediate global need to provide the citrus industry with relief from HLB and a return to profitable citrus production. Standard screening methods for HLB therapeutic treatments typically involve various laboratory-based assays to select treatments with antimicrobial properties ³ , which then advance to greenhouse and eventually field testing in a workflow that takes multiple years. Unlike traditional lab-first screening, we present a design of experiments framework ^4,5 , referred to as Grove-First, that rapidly screens treatments with regulatory-friendly profiles in commercial citrus groves using trunk injection to select treatments that improve tree health and fruit yield over the course of a single growing season. Using this framework, we identified candidate treatments with effects comparable to or better than the standard oxytetracycline (OTC) on visual tree-health and/or yield indices in an initial screen of HLB-positive 8-year-old Valencia sweet orange trees. Expanded trials in commercial citrus groves allowed us to validate the initial screening results at other locations and in other citrus varieties. Grove-First rapidly accelerated the identification and large-scale field testing of HLB therapies, some of which are available for growers to use immediately and others that require further field testing and/or regulatory actions.

The objective of this work was to determine the genetic diversity, yield, and fruit quality of persimmon genotypes grown in the tropics, in order to select promising genetic materials. DNA extraction was performed on young leaves of 19 persimmon genotypes. For pomological characterization, 15 genotypes were selected. From each genotype, 50 fruit at the physiological maturity stage were harvested in the morning, in order to determine the following parameters: physicochemical characteristics; and the productive variables number of fruit per plant, average fruit fresh mass, average yield, and estimated average yield in two seasons. Twenty SSR markers were tested, out of which 12 were selected to evaluate genetic similarity, which allowed of the identification of distinct groups. The mean genetic diversity value found was 0.41, which is an indicative of low diversity among the analyzed persimmon genotypes. The 'Guiombo', 'Iapar 125', 'Kakimel', 'Mikado RJ', 'Rama Forte Tardio', and 'Taubaté' genotypes show a high yield. The genotypes classified as pollination-constant astringent ('Pomelo', 'Regina', 'Rubi', and 'Taubaté') and those classified as pollination-variant astringent ('Rama Forte', 'Guiombo', and 'Cereja') are potential materials for selection and genetic breeding programs due to their excellent fruit physicochemical characteristics. The investigation through molecular markers is an efficient approach to study the genetic diversity of persimmon genotypes grown in the tropics.