Research with pejibaye or peach palm (Bactris gasipaes Kunth) has intensified in various countries due to its increasing use in plantations for heart-of-palm production, as a substitute for the predatory extraction of wild palms. Because the species is still understudied, researchers use different traits to evaluate its growth and yield, frequently measured in different ways, making direct comparisons of experiments impossible. This paper reviews methods used to analyse growth and yield in pejibaye and proposes a set of standard measurements to be used to evaluate agronomic and genetic experiments for heart-of-palm production. The essential vegetative measurements are plant height, leaf number and offshoot number, and the optional measurements are plant diameter, individual and whole plant leaf area and biomass. The essential yield measurements are number of harvested hearts-of-palm ("palmitos") and heart-of-palm weight and length (export type only), and the optional measurements are tender stem (basal by-product) weight, tender leaf (apical by-product) weight and heart-of-palm diameter. The use of these measurements, as explained here, will permit comparison of experiments in different environments and with different genotypes, as well as the estimation of useful growth, yield and physiological parameters.
Bactris gasipaes; growth analysis; linear measurements; numeric measurements; yield correlations