TY - JOUR AU - Guerrero, Badir AU - Velandia, Mauricio AU - Fischer, Gerhard AU - Montenegro, Hugo PY - 2011/01/31 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Plant extracts carboxylic acids and soil humidity influence production and cracking of cape gooseberry (Physalis peruviana L.) fruit JF - Revista Colombiana de Ciencias Hortícolas JA - Rev. Colomb. Cienc. Hortic VL - 1 IS - 1 SE - Fruits section DO - 10.17584/rcch.2007v1i1.1141 UR - https://revistas.uptc.edu.co/index.php/ciencias_horticolas/article/view/1141 SP - 9-20 AB - <p>In order to reduce the percentage of fruit cracking and increase size and weight of cape gooseberry fruits, the effect of carboxylic acids contained in the product Carboxy® Calhard (poly-hydroxy-carboxylic acids [78 g∙L<sup>-1</sup>], complemented with calcium and boron), was studied in a commercial crop. Product doses of 0, 1.5 and 3.0 L∙ha-1 and three levels of soil humidity: 10-25%, 25-50% and 50-75%, were used. The treatments 0, 1.5 and 3.0 L∙ha<sup>-1</sup> of Calhard at 50-75% of soil humidity resulted in a higher percentage of exportable fruits, 40.17, 41.67 and 45.33% respectively, as well as the lowest number of fruits for the national market (31.33, 29.67 and 37.0%, respectively) due to the high soil humidity. The treatments 0 and 1,5 L∙ha<sup>-1</sup> Calhard at 50-75% of soil humidity showed the highest percentage of cracked fruits, 28.50 and 28.67% respectively, whereas 3 L∙ha<sup>-1</sup> of Calhard at 50-75% soil humidity reduced significantly the percentage of cracked fruits to 17.67% due to application of carboxylic acids. Fresh fruit weight without calyx was related to the product dose and soil humidity, showing the treatment 3.0 L∙ha<sup>-1</sup> of Calhard at 50-75% of soil humidity as the one with the highest fresh fruit weight (4.04 g) compared to the control (3.58 g). Calhard application of 1.5 and 3.0 L∙ha<sup>-1</sup> increased the equatorial diameter of fruits with values of 18.56 and 18.95 mm respectively, while 0 L∙ha<sup>-1</sup> Calhard and the control showed the less fruit diameter values (18.39 mm).</p> ER -