PATH ANALYSIS OF PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES OF CHAYOTE FRUIT

Chayote is originally from southern Mexico and Guatemala has been a staple food highly appreciated in Brazil worldwide. This study was carried out on Red Yellow Latosol 2020 to investigate the relationship between physical properties of chayote fruit variety Cambray their mass, aiming indicate criteria for direct selection more attractive fruits. The parameters evaluated were mass (MAS), largest transverse diameter (LTD), smallest (STD), length (FTL), volume (FTV), area (FTA), perimeter (FTP), as well seed (SDA) (SDP). Initially, correlations among these morphological variables assessed by Pearson's correlation coefficient, network used express results graphically. A diagnosis multicollinearity performed, condition number 6639 (multicollinearity severe) found. Path analysis considered main dependent variable. Our analyses showed that MAS, FTV, FTA, FTP, STD are attributes with greatest potential identification fruits commercial purposes.