Effect of Climatic Factors on the Banana Growth and Its Fruit Quality at Different Altitudes

Purposes Banana (Musa spp.) is an important cash crop in subtropical regions in Yunnan. The quality itself could not be highlighted due to lack of systematic study on influencing factors on high quality, which directly affected the benefits of banana industry in Yunnan.

Methods We surveyed the vegetative and reproductive growth stages in one banana plantation at altitudes of 510, 660, and 810 m, respectively. We also measured illumination intensity, air temperature, soil temperature and moisture, plant morphological parameters and fruit quality to analyze the effect of climatic factors on plant growth and fruit quality of banana at different altitudes.

Results The banana growth period was increased with the increasing altitude in general. The illumination intensity showed that there was a decreasing trend with the increase of altitude, but it did not show significant difference. The air temperature was significantly reduced by the increase of altitude. Banana plant height and pseudostem girth was decreased with the increase of altitude. However, banana fruit quality was improved with the increase of altitude.

Conclusions In this study, we found that temperature was the most important climatic factor affecting the growth of bananas. The fruit quality was a significant enhancement with increase of altitude. However, the total acid content of fruit was also in an increasing trend. It is necessary to investigate how the altitude affects on the taste of bananas in next step of our research.