Análises agronômicas e sensoriais de cultivares de milho para produção de minimilho nas condições de zona da mata do Estado de Pernambuco

Abstract

In Brazil, corn is one of the main crops, about 80% of the national production is to supply the domestic market. The baby corn is the name given to the ear of corn before pollination occurs and its cultivation is approximately 70 days, so it is considered as a vegetable. There are no reports of specific commercial genetic material for use as a baby corn, theoretically, any type of corn can be used. The baby corn production is still under-explored, although domestic and external markets are promising. One factor that contributes a lot to this is the limited availability of information about production. To avoid this situation, to invest in the technological level of crop management and increase productivity, the objective is to evaluate maize genotypes that are more favorable to the production of baby corn, based on the agronomic and sensorial characteristics that are efficient in selection for planting in the Mata region of the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. The experiments were conducted at the experimental campus of Fitotecnia at UFRPE between 2014 and 2016 and the sensorial analysis was performed at the UFRPE Gastronomy laboratory. The agronomic parameters evaluated were plant height, panicle differentiation, ear length, ear diameter, ear weight, shoot weight, shoot weight after 12 days in the refrigerator, tassel height at day of harvest, height of first spike, number of ear and weight of the aerial part. Sensory evaluation was performed based on the acceptance of preserves, purchase intention and on the visual, olfactory and gustatory attributes. The agronomic variables that most influence in the production of the baby corn were number of ear, height of the plant at 30 and 60 days after the emergency, the weight of the spikes without spreading, height of the tassel on the day of harvest and weight of the aerial part. The genotypes CMS47 and the AL-25 were highlighted with higher number of ears and low shoot weight. All genotypes were super precocious. The CMS47 genotype was the one that had the high purchasing intentions. Therefore, this genotype should be used in breeding programs for baby corn production because it produces the highest number of cobs, low weight of the part aerial plant and a high potential for consumer acceptance.