PARAMETERS FOR MODELING COCOA FRUIT-GROWT H

Cocoa is important for Brazilian exports and demands tools to help mak e crop forecasts. Threshold-temperature and thermal constants were cal culated for each stage of fruit development after estimating the mean length of the different stages. The main meterological factors found t o have significant relationship with the different length of the stage s of the fruit were rain, solar radiation, pitch evaporation, class A pan evaporation, cloudiness, maximum and minimum temperatures, average temperature and hours of sunshine.