Harvest stage and association among traits for heart of palm yield in Archontophoenix alexandrae Wendl. & Drude.

The production of Australian king palm for obtaining palm heart is an important socio-economic activity in Santa Catarina, especially in the Northern Coastal region of the State. Determining the optimal harvest point is fundamental to optimize the palm heart yield of this species; however, studies on this issue are still scarce. The objective of this work was to study the relationship, at the time of harvesting, between the developmental stage of the youngest leaf, also known as the flag leaf or candle, and the association between the plant's height and diameter with the yield of basal, apical, and total palm heart. It was observed that the stage of opening flag leaf influenced the yield of tolete. Palms harvested with an opening flag leaf yielded more “tolete” as compared to palms with a closed flag leaf, which, in turn, produced more “band”. However, there was no difference in apical palm heart yield (tolete + band) or total palm heart yield (basal + apical). The attached dataset has 9 columns: - 1st area: data from two harvested areas (I and II); - 2nd tract: opening of the flag leaf that can be closed and opened; - 3rd AP: the variable plant height at the time of harvest; - 4th DC: the variable diameter of the plant at the time of harvest; - 5th basal: basal palm heart yield; - 6th tolete: tolete yield; - 7th band: band yield; - 8th apical: stump + band yield - 9th total: basal + stump + band yield.