CARACTERIZACIÓN DEL CRECIMIENTO DEL FRUTO DE LA GULUPA (Passifl ora edulis f. edulis SIMS.).

The study was conducted in the department of Caldas, municipality of Manizales, at the 'Tesorito' farm, property of Universidad de Caldas. The objective was to characterize the fruit growth curve of the purple passion fruit, to which ten accessions of purple passion fruit from six departments of Colombia were used. Polar and equatorial diameters were measured weekly in fruits of each accession. Density, volume, fresh weight and total soluble solids were measured weekly. Data were subject to analysis of variance, and to Tukey's test. Growth curves and their respective equations were obtained using the curve adjustment technique. It was established that the time to physiological maturity is a function of the origin of the fruit and ranged between 90 and 110 days; the polar diameter ranged between 5.6 and 5.9 cm, while the equatorial diameter ranged between 5.1 and 5.5 cm; density varied between 0.88 and 0.98 g mL-1; volume varied between 68.6 and 73.8 mL; soluble solids varied between 11 and 13 °Brix and fresh weight between 61.3 and 73.2g at physiological maturity. The growth curves based on the size of the fruits fi tted sigmoidal-logistic models with high statistical reliability. It was concluded that in the study area there are sufficient climatic conditions so that the purple passion fruit expresses its growth potential, regardless of the accession origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]