The postharvest shelflife of Galia Solarking melons was evaluated at the Postharvest Study Center, Escola Superior de Agricultura de Mossoró, RN, Brazil. The treatments consisted of submitting the hybrid to the experimental temperature at 5, 7, 9 and 11ºC under 90 ± 5% relative humidity, with or without modified atmosphere (MAP), with evaluations in nine days intervals (7 days under cold storage plus 2 days at room temperature), with the determination of weight loss, external and internal appearances, flesh firmness and total soluble solids content. A 4 x 2 x 5 (temperature x presence or absence of plastic film x time of storage) factorial scheme in a completely randomized design with three repetitions and one fruit per plot was utilized. Weight loss was smaller for the fruits under modified atmosphere. Larger values of flesh firmness were verified for fruits stored under modified atmosphere stored at 5ºC. Based on the external appearance, the postharvest shelflife of Solarking melons were 27 days for 5, 7 and 9ºC storage temperatures and 18 days for 11ºC.

The aim of the present work was to evaluate the effect of different pruning time of Prosopis juliflora (Sw) DC root system on seedlings growth. The experiment was carried out in the nursery of ESAM, Mossoró-RN. The prunings were carried out at 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70 days after germination. The completely randomized block experimental design was used, with four replications and eight plants per plot. Evaluations for shoot height, stem diameter, shoot height/stem diameter ratio, shoot dry matter weight, total dry matter weight and roots percentage were done. Statistical difference was observed only for root percentages, and the best means were obtained for prunings carried out at 50, 60, and 70 days after germination.

The present work was realized with the objective to evaluate the percentage of emergenceand the emergence velocity index (EVI) of bacuripari seeds, being accomplished of lath house conditions, with 50% of luminosity, using plants that came from the Germplasm Bank of the Department of Vegetable Production, of Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias - UNESP - Campus of Jaboticabal, São Paulo state, Brazil. The fruits were picked totally ripe, the seeds were extracted, washed, placed to dry and conditionedin plastic boxes, having vermiculite as substrate. The treatments was characterized by the size of the seeds: very big, big, medium and small, determined by the medium weight of the 50 seeds (in grams), being 63,634; 42,787; 25,631 and 9,508g respectively. The values of the percentage of emergence were transformed in arc sen . The averages were compared by the Test of Tukey, with 5% of probability. Analyzing the results was possible to observe that the smallest values, so of the percentage of the emergence (2,30%) and for the GVI (0,002) were obtained for the seeds with a small size, differing significantly of the other treatments, where was verified values of percentage of emergence of 83,33; 86,25 and 77,00% and GVI values of 0,102; 0,107 and 0,105 for the very big, big and medium, respectively. Can be concluded that there is interference of the seed's size-weight in emergence of this specie.

The red pitaya is a cactacea that has been more and more demanded both for theproducers and for the consumers. Nevertheless, there are still several aspects about its cultivation that need to be elucidated, in order to provide a good culture development and profitability to the producer. This work was done aiming to study the effect of substrate in the vegetative propagation of this fruit, commonly done through cutting. The experiment was carried out in a lath house from the Departamento de Produção Vegetal of FCAV - UNESP. Cuttings of adult plant were used and placed in different substrates for rooting, composing the following treatments: (1) soil, sand and manure of tanned corral mixture, in the proportion of 3:1:1; (2) coconut fiber (Amafibra); (3) sand and (4) commercial substrate (Plantmax). For each treatment, 4 replications with 10 cuttings were done. Fresh and dry mass of roots (grams) and volume (mL) were evaluated. A completely randomized design was used, and data evaluated by Tukey test at 5% probability. In the conditions in which the experiment was accomplished, one can conclude that there was influence of the substrate in the fresh mass and volume of the roots, being the substrate (1) the most appropriate for seedlings formation of this species.

The objective of this work was to verify the usage level and the occurrence of the papaya (Jacaratia corumbensis O. kuntze) in a caatinga area of 112 ha, located in eight communities of small farmers in the semi-arid region of Bahia State. The work was accomplished with 149 farmers, in the period from August to December 2000. In each community, interviews with the farmers were done in order to verify those that used the papaya (mamãozinho-de-veado) to feed the animals in the dry season, and also to verify a rise in the density of plants per hectare. The data analysis showed that the papaya was used in all the studied communities as an alternative for alimentary supplement for the animals in the dry season. The papaya plant density of natural occurrence in the communities was of 10.38 plants /ha, in average, indicating that this plant is well disseminated in the area, being an alimentary supplement source for the animals in the semi-arid conditions.

This work was conducted in order to evaluate the procedures for analysis of nodule development through non-destructive and destructive methods in the same plant set. A greenhouse experiment was carried out with cowpea grain legume. Plants were weekly measured, from seven days old to physiological maturity, for evaluation of plant height and leaf area, and to obtain digitized images of all the visible part of the rooting systems. Weekly, a plant was also collected from each block for destructive determination of plant and nodule development.Nodules area, length and diameter were measured for those hand-separated from the root system and for those visible on the vessels side. For area, length and diameter of the nodules, initially a escriptive analysis was conducted in each point and next it was determined the average, median, maximum, minimum and the sum for each variable. Both variables, leaf area and plant height, were studied by regression analysis being considered as dependent variables and plant age as independent variable. Independent regressions were conducted for data obtained through the traditional destructive methods. Results have indicated a general concordance for development curves obtained by destructive and non-destructive methods, especially regarding nodule appearing and age in which the maximum value for each variable was found.

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of four nitrogen sources (ammonium sulfate, calcium nitrate, urea and monoammonium phosphate) at 80 kg ha-1, applied 2, 3, 4 and 5 times through drip irrigation on the production and characteristics of the melon, under field conditions, at the Cajazeiras Agricultural Farm, located in Tibau, RN, Brazil. The experiment was carried out in a completely randomized block design, in a 4 x 4 factorial scheme, with four replications. The melon yield was measured considering total number and weight of the fruits, the number of marketable fruits per hectare and size of the fruits. Generally speaking, the results showed that melon plants presented similar response to all used nitrogen sources, notably to the MAP applied three times; that the number of nitrogen applications did not affected the evaluated parameters regarding production and quality of fruits; and that the used nitrogen sources and the application number of the fertilizers resulted in higher amount of types 6, 7 and 8 fruits (fruits with average size).

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