EFFECT OF SELECTION TIME OF SUCKERS ON TH E CYCLE AND PRODUCTION OF MOTHER PLANTS OF BANANA (MUSA-ACUMINATA) CV MYSORE IN PORTO-LUCENA, RS

This work was carried out at the Centro de Pesquisa e Extensao em Frut icultura Tropical (CEPEX), in Porto Lucena, RS, aiming to evaluate the effects of selection time of suckers on the production and cycle of m other plants of banana cv. Mysore. The experiment was set up in Septem ber 1987, using a randomized block design with five treatments and thr ee replicates. The evaluated treatment was the selection of suckers by four, five, six, seven and eight months after planting the mother pla nt. Average ''trunk''girth by bloom and picking time were of 50,6 cm a nd 48,3 cm and the mean number of leaves was of 10,9 and 6,7, respecti vely. Evaluated plants had an average cycle of 449,21 days from planti ng to bloom and 183,87 days from bloom to picking, which makes 633,08 days from planting to picking. The mean number of hands/bunch was abou t 10,28 and that of fruits/bunch was about 146,38. The average weight of bunches was of 8,8 kg, corresponding to a production of 14,64 tonne s/ha. There was no effect of treatments on any of the evaluated variab les.