Melhoria das técnicas culturais na produção de mirtilo em substrato

Mestrado em Engenharia Agronómica - Hortofruticultura e Viticultura - Instituto Superior de AgronomiaIn recent years in Portugal the blueberry area has increased, making it necessary to develop and optimize the existing production technologies. Blueberries are plants that have different needs in chilling hours, depending on the type of cultivar. The production in substrate has increased not only worldwide but also in Portugal. The effect of chilling hours, different substrates and pot size on growth and yield was studied. Two experiments were made in southwest alentejo. In the first experiment, the cultivars used were Legacy, Duke and Elizabeth which were submitted to different periods of chilling hours (from 504 to 1128 hours). After the treatments they continued their development outdoors. The results showed that ‘Legacy’ behaves like a southern highbush and is the cultivar best adapted to the southwest alentejo climate. The cultivars Duke and Elizabeth did not perform well considering all chilling treatments and are not adapted to this climate. In the second experiment two pot sizes (25 L and 15 L) and two different substrates were tested for the growth of one year old plants of cultivar Paloma. There were no statistical significant differences in both types of pots and substrates, plants increased, in eight months, about 800 g dry matter weigh