Plaintain clones

The following plantain clones were evaluated for yield and morphological characteristics at the Agricultural Experiment Substation of Corozal: plátano enano, Congo enano, Dominican Dwarf, Hartón, Maricongo, Congo 300 and Lacknau. Plátano enano, Dominican Dwarf, Hartón and Maricongo belong to the horn type of plantain; the other clones to the French type. The experiment was planted August 1987 in a Corozal clay soil (Aquic Tropudults) at a spacing of 1.8 square meters per plant. The Congo 300 clone produced the most fruits per hectare, 211,593 fruits, and the Hartón clone the lowest, 47,242 fruits. The Lacknau clone yielded highest: 39.4 mt/ha and the Hartón lowest, 19.5 mt/ha. Congo 300 produced an average of 82.3 fruits per bunch and was significantly different from the other clones except for Congo Enano. Although Congo 300 had the highest number of fruits per bunch, it had the lowest average fruit weight, 131 g. All fruits from clones of the horn type averaged more than 280 grams, a weight well accepted for the Puerto Rican market. All clones flowered in an average of 452 days; the Maricongo clone was the earliest in flowering, 429 days, and the Congo 300 the latest, 495 days. All clones were harvested in an average of 107 days after flowering: the Hartón was harvested in 96 days, and Congo Enano in 118 days.