Comparison of open-field and protected banana cultivation for some morphological and yield features under subtropical conditions

Banana production in Turkey is located well beyond subtropical banana production zones. However, banana is the only tropical fruit produced commercially in both open-field and greenhouse conditions. Recently the area under greenhouse production has started to expand, partly because production costs are covered by harvesting fruit in same year as planting. This popularity has also led to improved greenhouse technology being used for banana production. In this research, the effects of open-field and greenhouse production systems on some of the morphological (number of leaves, pseudostem circumference, pseudostem height, bunch stalk circumference), phenological features (fruit maturation length), and yield components (number of hands, number of fingers per bunch) were determined. In addition, the effects of production systems on physicochemical features of banana were investigated. Similar cultural measures were applied in both cultivation systems except for bunch covering. Among the morphological features, number of leaves, pseudostem circumference and pseudostem height were found to be higher under greenhouse conditions than those in open field cultivation. Fruit maturation length was shorter in greenhouse-produced banana by about 25 days, compared to that observed in open-field cultivation. Yield components were also found to be better in greenhouse-produced banana as compared with open field production, with average bunch weight of 40 kg in greenhouse-produced banana versus 27 kg in banana produced under open-field conditions. Physical fruit parameters were found to be better for greenhouse-produced fruits compared to those observed in open-produced fruits while soluble solids contents did not differ in both production conditions. The results of this research clearly showed that some yield and fruit quality components were found to be superior when produced in a greenhouse production system compared to that observed in open field production system and no wind damage, naturally, was observed in greenhouse.