In situ morphoagronomic characterization of Creole cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) in the Cangrejera canton, municipality of Izalco, department of Sonsonate, El Salvador

Abstract

The investigation was carried out between August 2017 and October 2018, in the Cangrejera canton, municipality of Izalco, department of Sonsonate, El Salvador. The objective of the research was to identify elite trees of Creole cocoa, using tools to characterize Creole cocoa. Adapted from the descriptors of INIFAP and CATIE. Characterization tours were carried out in situ and collected on the farm, identifying those trees that presented characteristics of Creole cocoa, emphasizing the color of the seed. Samples of flowers, fruits, leaves and seeds were collected; the latter, with the purpose of knowing their chemical composition through bromatological analysis in the Agricultural Chemistry Laboratory of the Faculty of Agronomic Sciences of the University of El Salvador. For the interpretation of data, descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis were used using the SPSS version 25 program, incorporating 41 trees and 33 quantitative descriptors subject to the descriptive analysis. Principal component analyzes were evaluated by the Cluster method. As results, 41 cocoa trees were characterized, finding high genetic variability confirmed by the formation of 14 clusters with high heterogeneity between them and homogeneity in the subgroups based on the ordering of the descriptors, which brought together the characteristics of the trees contributing with 84.98% to the total variance. In addition, 11 cocoa trees were found with their fruits containing almonds whose cotyledon were 100% white, fat values of up to 56.55% and protein with 17.15% respectively. Finally, an illustrated catalog of the characterized trees was developed.