Experimental plot size of passion fruit

Abstract

The determination of the plot size is a practical matter pertinent to the experimental planning, and its optimal characterization allows to obtain higher precision and better quality in the results. Therefore, in this study, the main goal was to determine the plot size in experiments of passion fruit in two uniformity tests with Passiflora setacea and Passiflora alata. The experiment was constituted of a substrate at planting with 3 thirds of soil and 1 of barnyard manure. The soil was fertilizer with 3 kg of simple superphosphate and 0.5 kg of KCl by 1m(3). Each species of Passiflora was considered a uniformity test with 40 basic units (BU). The evaluations of the experiments were done on 60 days after the transplant, noticing the tree's height, stem's diameter, number of leaves, number of buds, number of meristems and chlorophyll. Several plot sizes were simulated, in which each plant was first considered as a basic unit up to 40 plants per unit basic. For the estimation of optimum plot size, the maximum modified curvature method was used. The plot sizes varied with the specie, founding values as three to seven BU for Passiflora setacea and four BU to five for Passiflora alata.