DETERMINATION OF PHYSIOLOGICAL MATURITY OF GOLDEN BERRY SEEDS (Physalis peruviana L.)

The present work was carried out with the objective of evaluating the physiological maturity of the seeds and determining an index of fruit maturity, by means of the measurement of the effect of the time from the anthesis on variables of fruit and seeds. The flowers were marked in a culture of P. peruviana located in the Experimental Center of Botana (University of Narino); for the analysis of the variables was used a completely random design, always tending to the time passed from the anthesis like independent variable. To the 75 days after the anthesis, the fruits and the calyx begin to lose their green colour and to become yellow; also, the seeds change their white colour to cream. The length and the weight of the fruit with calyx reached their maximum values as of the 75 days after the anthesis, whereas the diameter and the weight of the fruit were increased statistically until the 90 days after the anthesis. The smaller values to the humidity content of the seeds were reached as of the 75 days after the anthesis; the germination and the emergency reached the greater values as of the 75 days after the anthesis, but the vigour of the seeds was increased until the 90 days after the anthesis. Finally, the physiological maturity of the fruit and seeds of P. peruviana is reached as of the 75 days after the anthesis.