Base temperature, thermal time and phyllochron of escarole cultivation

Abstract

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to determine the base temperature of escarole and to apply in the phenological analysis of crop during four growing periods. The study was carried out with escarole (Chicorium endivia) ‘Escarola Lisa’ cultivar, at the Federal University of Santa Maria, campus Frederico Westphalen-RS. The experiment was performed in a randomized block design with four sowing periods (P1: 2/15/2015; P2: 04/29/2015, P3: 07/22/2015, P4: 10/16/2015) and 10 replicates, each replicate being one plant. The evaluations consisted of counting the number of leaves, performed three times a week after transplanting date until the harvesting point. To determine the base temperature, the following methods were used: standard deviation in degree-days (SDgd), standard deviation in days (SDd), coefficient of variation in degree-days (CVgd), coefficient of variation in days (CVd), regression coefficient (RC) and X-intercept. The base temperature for emission of two successive leaves in the escarole is 4.7°C, obtained by values of 4.0 and 5.5°C, observed in the SDgd and RC methods. For two leaves emission, the temperature between 16.6 and 27.8°C day leaf-1 is necessary.