Behavior in yield and quality of 54 cape gooseberry (Physalis peruviana L.) accessions from north-eastern Colombia

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: " lang="EN-US"><span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: ";Calibri";,";sans-serif";; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;" lang="EN-US">This study evaluated the performance in production and fruit quality of 54 accessions of cape gooseberry collected from plants that were cultivated, feral and indeterminate from the north-east. The experiment was carried out using a completely randomized design with four replicates per accession in a greenhouse. We estimated the germination percentage (GP) for 30 seeds per accession and with a random sampling of 20 fruits at 120 days after the beginning of harvest (dah), weight of the fruit with calyx (CFW), percentage of cracked fruit (CF), number of fruits per plant (NFP) and yield (Y), were determined and at 105 dah total soluble solids (TSS), total titratable acidity (TTA), maturity ratio (MR = TSS/TTA), pH and ascorbic acid (AA) were evaluated. Significant differences were observed in GP, Y and CFW with the highest values recorded at 91.23%, 6.17 kg/ plant and 5.68 g, respectively. For the variables TSS and CF, feral materials showed the highest values with 14.7°Brix and 23.93%, respectively. The results suggest the presence of significant variability in the Cape gooseberry germplasm analyzed that can be incorporated into future conservation and breeding programs.</span></span></p>