Tropical and subtropical fruits

Abstract

Production and commercialization of tropical and subtropical fruits have strongly increased in the last decade, particularly in countries with subtropical and Mediterranean climates, with important developmental advances due to significant research efforts, including control of flowering, intensive cultivation systems and use of growth regulators. This chapter covers general aspects such as the definition, classification and importance of tropical and subtropical fruits and their environmental requirements. Due to the different growth behaviour of monoaxial and polyaxial species different case studies covering some of the main tropical and subtropical fruits, i.e. bananas and papayas (monoaxials) and avocado, mango and cherimoya (polyaxials) are treated separately regarding their edaphoclimatic requirements for production and crop management, making special emphasis in reproductive biology, a key factor on the adaptation of tropical and subtropical fruits to different environments.