Banana tree defoliation, in a rational way, it is a cultural practice that should be accomplished periodically, aiming at eliminating those leaves whose photosynthetic activity does not assist to the physiological needs of the plant, bringing among other advantages, facilitating the disease control. Concerning to sigatoka spots, the elimination of injured leaves is an important auxiliary tool for its control, for reducing the source of secondary inoculum, however it should be done with criterion to not cause more serious damages than those ones caused by the own disease. It is known that the banana trees of the subgroup Cavendish need 11 and 8 whole leaves in the moment of flowering and harvesting, respectively, to produce the necessary photoassimilates for the stuffing of the bunch, however for banana 'Prata-Anã' this is unknown yet. To avoid misunderstandings in the 'Prata-Anã' management, it was evaluated, for five consecutive productive cycles, the effect of different levels of defloliation on the production, defining a better relationship of defoliation level: production. The handlings consisted of the maintenance of 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14 leaves per plant, besides the control (removal just of the dry and broken leaves). The mass of the bunches was greater in the plants maintained with a minimum of 12 leaves, as well as most of the characteristics related to production. An appropriate number of hands and fingers, as well as most of the hands characteristics, occurred when at least 10 leaves per plant were maintained. More accentuated defoliations, in which were kept 4, 6, 8 or 10 leaves per plant, reducing old diseased leaves, mainly with sigatoka, allowed greater preservation of the remaining leaves in the plants. When there was no defoliation, 12 or 14 leaves were kept per plant; it was verified larger natural defoliation, mainly in the fourth and fifth cycle, probably favored by the greatest pressure of the disease inoculum. It was concluded that more accentuated defoliations reduced the disease inoculum potential and better preserved the remaining leaves in the plants, however, it reduced the productive potential of bunches by the loss of photosynthetic area. Thus, the best tested alternative was the maintenance of 10 to 12 leaves per plant to obtain appropriate number of fruits and their stuffing, in order to conciliate production and fitossanity of the banana plantation.
leaves removal; Musa sp; banana plantation management; sigatoka
