Early greenhouse production of male genotypes of green asparagus ( Asparagus officinalis var. altilis ) in their seventh year since planting in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Abstract

Asparagus is an interesting productive option with growing global demand and an opportunity for seasonal early production, as well as the elaboration of greenhouse produce. In order to evaluate the behavior in their seventh production year of the Italian cultivars ‘Italo’, ‘Zeno’, ‘Eros’, ‘Ercole’, ‘H-668’, ‘Marte’ and ‘Giove’ versus the North American ‘UC-157’ as control, a trial was initiated on 15/11/2006 by means of seedlings transplanted at 1×0.3 m. For the current study, 35 harvests were performed between 21/08/2013 and 16/10/2013. The following traits were evaluated: total and commercial fresh productivity (TFP and CFP), total and commercial spear number (TSN and CSN) and calibre distribution (CD) (Jumbo (J), Extra-Large (XL), Large (L), Medium (M), Small (S) and Asparagin (A)). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out, with means compared by LSD (P≤0.05). For TFP (t ha-1), the ranking was ‘Italo’: 24.8a; ‘Zeno’: 15.9 and ‘Giove’: 12.4b; ‘UC-157’: 7.4, ‘Ercole’: 7.0 and ‘Eros’: 6.8c; ‘H-668’: 5.1cd; and ‘Marte’: 3.1d; and for CFP (t ha-1), the ranking was: ‘Italo’: 13.4a; ‘Zeno’: 7.2 and ‘Giove’: 6.4b; ‘UC-157’: 4.0, ‘Ercole’: 3.1 and ‘Eros’: 3.3cd; and ‘H-668’: 1.9 and ‘Marte’: 1.7d. For TSN (number ha-1), the results were: ‘Italo’: 1155000a; ‘Zeno’: 557515b; ‘Giove’: 542500bc; ‘H-668’: 457485 and ‘Eros’: 447510bcd; ‘Ercole’: 402500cd; and ‘UC-157’: 347515 and ‘Marte’: 194985e; and for CSN (number ha-1), the following was obtained: ‘Italo’: 822500a; ‘Giove’: 367500 and ‘Zeno’: 325010b, ‘UC-157’: 227500c; ‘Eros’: 207515 and ‘H-668’: 172515cd; and ‘Marte’: 120015d. For CD, ‘Italo’a stood out for J, L, M and S; whereas in XL and A there was homogeneous calibre production. It can be concluded that ‘Italo’ was the best productive option available among the cultivars studied for the productive stage evaluated.