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Fig. 1. Maximum, minimum and average air temperature, relative air humidity and rainfall recorded during the execution of the experiment. Petrolina, Pernambuco, Brazil (A − 2016; B − 2017). 362 Figure 1 . Maximum, minimum and average air temperature, relative air humidity and rainfall 363 recorded during the execution of the experiment. Petrolina, Pernambuco, Brazil (A – 2016; B 364 2017).

Materials and Methods Plant Material and Growing Conditions  Ten year-old ‘Kent’ mango ( Mangifera indica L.) trees, with uniform size and vigor were used in this study. The experiment was performed in two consecutive years (2016 and 2017) in an experimental orchard located in Petrolina (09°09 ' S and 40º22 ' W; at an altitude of 365.5 m above sea level), Pernambuco, Brazil. The climate of this region is classified as Bsh (Köeppen), which corresponds to a semi-arid region.  During the experiment, climatic data were collected by a meteorological station (Fig. 1). Chemical characteristics of the soil before the experiment are in Table 1. The orchard nutritional status was also determined by leaf analysis before the experiment, as can be seen in Table 2. Leaves were collected in the middle part of the canopy, on 8 July 2016 and 10 June 2017. Leaves were chemically analyzed after they were washed and rinsed with distilled water and dried at 65 °C to a constant biomass following methodology

Jarande et al. (2013) applied nutrients plus sucrose to ‘Kesar’, Khattab et al. (2016) studied the effect of a biostimulant containing calcium, boron and amino acids on different mango cultivars (but not ‘Kent’), and Ahmed et al. (2015) demonstrated the benefits of algae extract associated with nitrogen fertilization on ‘Taimour’.  Ebeed and Abd El-Migeed (2005) reported positive results on fruit characteristics and postharvest quality with the use of 10 % sucrose combined with 0.3 % potassium citrate for ‘Fagri kalan’ mango. However, the effects of biostimulants on the physical- chemical quality of mango fruits are scarce in the scientific literature, although they are crucial characteristics for the mango industry, since fruit postharvest quality depends on several factors such as plant genetics, climate and production practices performed in the orchard. In this sense, the objective of this study was to evaluate ‘Kent’ fruit yield and postharvest quality as a function of foliar spray with biostimulants.

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Table 1. Chemical soil characteristics (0-40 cm soil depth) in the experimental site before the 332 experiment. 333 pH O.M. P K + Na + Ca 2+ Mg 2+ Al 3+ (H + Al) S.B. V H 2 O g/100g mg/dm 3 --------------------- cmol c /dm 3 -------------------------- % 6.3 12 16 0.35 0.13 4.5 1.8 0 1.92 6.78 78 P, K and Na: Mehlich 1 (HCl + H 2 SO 4 ); Ca, Mg and Al: KCl 1 M extractor. O.M.: organic matter; 334 S.B.: sum of bases; V: percent base saturation; mg: milligrams; cmol c : centimole of charge; dm 3 : 335 cubic decimeter. Table 1. Chemical soil characteristics (0-40 cm soil depth) in the experimental site before the experiment. P, K and Na: Mehlich 1 (HCI + H 2 SO 4 ); Ca, Mg andA1: KC1 1 M extractor. O.M.: organic matter; SB.: sum of bases; V: percent base saturation; mg: milligrams; cmol c : centimole of charge; dm 3 : cubic decimeter.

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