Commercial productivity in the Fourth International Asparagus Cultivar Trial at Azul, Argentina (2016)

Abstract

Abstract: A field trial was carried out at Azul (36°48',lat.S-59°51',long.O) consisting of asparagus hybrids ‘Italo’, ‘Vittorio’, ‘Eros’, ‘Ercole’, ‘Giove’, ‘Franco’, ‘Chino’, ‘Early-California’, ‘UC-157’, ‘Patrón’, ‘NJ-1189’, ‘NJ-1123’ and ‘NJ-1192’, planted on 16/11/2011 with density 23.810 plants.ha-1. Characters scored between 19/8/2016-17/11/2016 were: total fresh commercial productivity (TFCP), long and short spear fresh commercial productivity (LSFCP-SSFCP), total commercial spear number (TCSN), long and short commercial spear number (LCSN-SCSN), mean spear weight (MSW) and calibre distribution, CD (J: Jumbo; XL: Extra-Large; L: Large; M: Medium; S: Small y A: Asparagina). Spears were cut, selected (long: 22cm, short: 17cm), weighed, counted, washed and calibrated, and ANOVA-LSD (P≤0.05) employed. Overall mean values were: TFCP:5117,10 t ha-1, TCSN:284910 spears and MSW:18 g spear-1. For TFCP, ‘Vittorio’:6072, ‘UC-157’:6006, ‘Eros’:5885, ‘Franco’:5745, ‘NJ-1123’:5573, ‘Early-California’:5359 and ‘NJ-1192’:5284 kg ha-1 exceeded the mean. For LSFCP, ‘UC-157’:4250a, ‘Vittorio’:4134ab, ‘Franco’:4056ab, ‘Eros’:3978ab, ‘NJ-1192’:3861abc and ‘Early-California’:3744abc excelled and for SSFCP, ‘NJ-1123’:1985a, ‘Vittorio’:1983ab, ‘Eros’:1907abc, ‘Italo’:18174abcd, ‘UC-157’:1755abcde, ‘Franco’:1688abcde and ‘Early-California’:1615abcde. For TCSN, ‘UC-157’:356343, ‘Patrón’:341991, ‘NJ-1192’:324675, ‘NJ-1123’:308022, ‘Franco’:307671, ‘Early-California’:307359, ‘Vittorio’:306306, ‘Ercole’:300027 and ‘Eros’:289497 exceeded the mean. For LCSN, ‘UC-157’:230334a, ‘Patrón’:219336ab, ‘NJ-1192’:216996ab and ‘Franco’:200343abc excelled and for SCSN, ‘NJ-1123’:129012a, ‘UC-157’:126009a, ‘Patrón’:122655a, ‘Early-California’:111345ab, ‘Eros’:110175ab, ‘Ercole’:110019ab, ‘Vittorio’:109317ab, ‘Italo’:108342ab, ‘NJ-1192’:107679ab and ‘Franco’:107328ab. For CD, 48% were larger calibres and 43% smaller; the following performed well for J: ‘NJ-1189’a, ‘Eros’ab, ‘Giove’abc, for XL: ‘Eros’a, for L: ‘Franco’a, ‘Eros’a, ‘Ercole’a, ‘Vittorio’ab, ‘UC-157’ab, ‘Early-California’abc, ‘NJ-1123’ abc, for M: ‘Ercole’a, ‘UC-157’a, ‘Patrón’ab, ‘NJ-1123’ abc, ‘Franco’abc and for S: ‘Patrón’a. From these results, it can be discerned that (i) a group of five hybrids (‘Vittorio’, ‘Eros’, and ‘Franco’ =Italian), and ‘UC-157’ and ‘Early-California’ =USA) were high performing for all three productivity measures (TFCP-LSFCP-SSFCP); (ii) an additional hybrid, ‘Patrón’, gave high spear number for all three measures (TCSN-LCSN-SCSN); (iii) the hybrids varied considerably in their calibre distribution; and (iv) the hybrids provided a range of different production options for existing and potential growers.