A study carried out in a commercial orchard of the main mango production and exportation region in Northeast Brazil (Petrolina, Pernambuco State), showed a typical sigmoidal curve for fruit growth. In addition, a non destructive method for fruit growth measurements was searched by studying the relationships between fruit dry mass, fresh mass, volume and diameters for mango cv. Haden. Results showed that fruit mass can be estimated from fruit volume calculated by the product of the fruit diameters. Correlation studies gave coefficients (r²) above 0.91 for all periods of evaluation along fruit development, from full anthesis to harvest. In addition was observed that mango fruit fresh mass is affected by water deficit imposed during fruit development, a common local practice aiming the hastening of fruit maturation and the increasing of fruit sugar content.
Mangifera indica (L.); fruit mass; fruit volume; fruit diameters; non destructive method
