Selection of natural hybrids of ‘Ubá’ mango from Zona da Mata, Minas Gerais state, Brazil

Abstract The ‘Ubá’ mango tree is found in all the cities of the Zona da Mata and its fruits are destined for both in natura consumption and for processing. However, there is a great heterogeneity among plants in the orchards, which contributes to low productivity. This study aimed to evaluate and select superior accessions of ‘Ubá’ mango trees collected in Ubá, Visconde do Rio Branco, and Viçosa, based on agronomic characteristics, aiming to produce high-quality fruits. The experiment was installed in Visconde do Rio Branco, MG. We evaluated 195 ‘Ubá’ mango tree accessions, in a completely randomized design, with four replications, of one tree each. The productions of the first five crops (mass and number of fruits, and alternate bearing index - per plant), and the fruit quality characteristics from the 2017-2018 crop (fruit, peel, seed and pulp masses; length, ventral and transversal diameters, peel and pulp color index, soluble solids content, titratable acidity, vitamin C and total carotenoids content of the pulp) were evaluated. Seventy-eight accessions of ‘Ubá’ mango trees were selected, 24 were based on accumulated production, over 200 kg of fruits per plant, and 59 accessions were based on fruit quality characteristics.