Interaction of Eggplant Genotypes by Cropping Systems and Correlations between Characters

Abstract

The eggplant, Solanum melongena L. is a crop that is in the expansion phase, mainly due to the medicinal properties of its fruits in lowering cholesterol levels and blood pressure. The objective of this work was to evaluate eggplant genotypes in different cropping systems, identifying those most adapted to the Meso-region of Atlantic Forest. The experiment was conducted between December 2011 and May 2012, in the experimental area of the Department of Agronomy of the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco - UFRPE, Recife, PE, and at the Experimental Station Luiz Jorge da Gama Wanderley - IPA in Vitória de Santo Antão, PE, located in the Meso-region of Atlantic Forest. We assessed two open-pollinated cultivars and six eggplant hybrids in three cultivation systems: conventional, organic and hydroponic. A randomized complete block design with eight treatments and six replicates was used in each of the three systems. The hydroponic cultivation system exhibited the best results in all the genotypes in the studied variables, in which five hybrids presented better performance in this system. The hybrid of Ciça and Embu, open pollinated cultivar, showed no significant difference between the systems. The hybrids Comprida, Chica and Blanca showed higher commercial fruit yield in all cultivation systems. The hydroponic system presented that the majority of the genotypic and phenotypic correlations smaller than those of the conventional and organic systems.