Fruit quality of pineapple ‘Vitória’ under macronutrients and boron deficiency

Abstract The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of macronutrient and boron deficiencies on physico-chemical characteristics of pineapple fruits, ‘Vitoria’ cultivar. The experimental design was a randomized complete block with eight treatments (complete solution, -N, -P, -K, -Ca, -Mg, -S and -B) and six replicates. The experiment was conducted from October 2016 to March 2018, and the variables evaluated were: fresh fruit and crown mass, fruit diameter, fruit and crown length, juice volume and mass, titratable acidity (TA), soluble solids (SS), vitamin C, juice pH and SS/TA ratio. All treatments with nutrient deficiency reduced the fresh fruit mass. In treatments -N and -Ca there was a reduction of 41.9 and 35.3%, respectively, in the crown fresh mass. Fruits diameter under N, K and Mg deficiency was lower, fruit length, soluble solids and juice pH were lower in treatment with N deficiency. Isolated deficiencies of each of the macronutrients and B reduced the mass of the whole fruit and the crownless fruit. The nutrient that most limited the size and quality of ‘Vitoria’ pineapple fruit was nitrogen.