The objective was to evaluate the performance of growth and productivity of three cactus for-age clones, resistant to Cochineal Carmine, grown under irrigated conditions in the Brazilian semi-arid region. The clones evaluated were: IPA Sertânia (IPA), Miúda (MIU) and the Orelha Elefante Mexicana (OEM), be-tween February 2010 and February 2012, in Serra Talhada, State of Pernambuco. To the end of the crop cycle morphological data were obtained from plants (canopy height and width, cladode total number, cladode number by order of emergence and cladode area index) and cladode (length, width, thickness, perimeter and area), and crop productive parameters (crop fresh and dry matter yield, and final density of plants per hectare). Path anal-ysis was applied to evaluate the influence of meteorological variables (global solar radiation, air temperature and relative humidity, wind speed and rain) on the growth of cactus forage. It was found that the OEM and IPA were those who stood out most of the morphological characteristics. But, in terms of cladode number, the MIU is the clone of greater emission (> 35 units), however it has been demonstrated as the clone less productive in terms of fresh mass (117.5 t ha-1), along with the IPA. The OEM stood out as the most productive clone (163.0 t ha-1). However, there was no difference in productivity in dry basis between the clones (12.6 ± 2.0 t ha-1). The IPA has the highest mortality of plants (10.4%). Meteorological variables showed effect lower on the evolution of crop growth (< 33.1%).

Cropping systems modify soil attributes and may change its quality.The work had the objective to evaluate the changes in physical, chemical and biological soil under organic farming systems (soils cultivated organically for more than seven years), in conversion to organic and conventional, with reference to the soil under native forest, and identify the attributes used as indicators of soil quality. Three areas of farm crops, located in the municipalities of Areia, Remígio, and Lagoa Seca, the state of Paraíba, Brazil were selected, and soil samples deformed collected in the layers 0-10 and 10-20 cm. The data were analyzed using ANOVA, the Tukey Test, and the Principal Component Analysis. There was a reduction of soil density (Ds) and increased porosity (PT) in the system of organic farming compared to cropping systems in conversion organic and conventional. The contents of phosphorus and organic carbon (CO), the base sum (SB), cation exchange capacity (CTC), light particulate organic matter (MOPL), carbon particulate organic matter light (CMOPL), edaphic respiration (RE) and pH of soils under organic cultivation are higher than soils under conventional tillage.The growing organic basis contributes to the maintenance of soil quality under similar conditions and/or even better than the condition forest and, under the conditions of this study, the most appropriate indicators to analyze the cultivation organic basesare Ds, PT, CO, MOPL, CMOPL, pH, SB, CTC e RE.

This study was carried out at SIPA (Integrated System of Agroecological Production), situated in Seropédica, RJ, Brazil, in order to evaluate the effects of two cropping systems on yield and growth of sweet pepper (Capsicum annuum L.). The trial was conducted in a scheme of plots split in time, with three rep-lications, where cropping systems (conventional - CT and e no-till - NT) were assigned to the plots, while sam-pling dates were assigned to the subplots. Although values observed suggested that NT system provided a better crop growth performance in relation to CP, this superiority was not confirmed when comparing growth analysis methods. The functional method provided different values of biomass accumulation and leaf area index (LAI) of plants between two cropping systems. The highest values of LAI were 1.61 m2 m-2 and 1.31 m2 m-2, respec-tively, for NT and CT. Similar behavior was observed for accumulated plant biomass, being obtained values of 634.29 g m-2 and 511.44 g m-2, respectively, for NT and CT. In both cropping systems evaluated, three produc-tion cycles were identified, which yield peaks occurred at 58, 100 and 149 days after planting (DAP). However, yield per harvest and total yield presented no difference between the cropping systems.

Most banana plantations are still made using traditional clones per type horn and rhizomes. Oth- er propagation methods such as micropropagation have been developed and perfected to raise the rate of multi- plication in a short time and improve the health status of the seedlings. However, contamination by bacteria and fungi is one of the biggest problems of this technique. The aim was to evaluate the in vitro disinfestation using active chlorine concentrations of banana explants ‘Farta Velhaco’. The experimental design used was com- pletely randomized consisting of five treatments and five repetition, each replicate represented by five explants in different concentrations of active chlorine for twenty minutes: T1 - without active chlorine, T2 - 0.5% active chlorine, T3 - 1.0% of active chlorine, T4 - 1.5% active chlorine and T5 - 2% active chlorine. The percentages of contamination by bacteria and fungi as well as the percentage of oxidation of the explants were evaluated. Data were subjected to analysis of variance and regression analysis. The results showed that the highest effi- ciency among the tested treatments was the immersion of explants in 1% of active chlorine that caused a reduc- tion in 95% and 90% respectively for bacteria and fungi and 60% of explants oxidation. It was concluded that this concentration can be used to control contamination for micropropagation of banana 'Farta Velhaco'.

The Caatinga is one of the least known biomes in terms of structure and floristic composition, worrying aspect because it undergoes an intense process of human disturbance. With this assumption, we car- ried out a phytosociological survey of adult vegetation and natural regeneration in areas with different histories of disturbance. For a sampling of the shrub/adult tree and natural regeneration, settled in a systematic, 18 sam- pling units in each area (Habitat I and Habitat II), with dimensions of 10 x 25 m and 10 x 5 m respectively. Individuals were surveyed adults with CAP ≥ 6.0 cm, and natural regeneration measured the individuals taller than 0.5 m and CNB <6.0 cm. Habitat II in the were sampled 1155 individuals belonging to 6 families and 12 species, and the habitat I was sampled 286 individuals belonging to three families and six species. The diversity index was 1.5 and 0.23 for Nats.individual - 1 Habitat II and habitat I respectively. We sampled 636 individuals in natural regeneration, being habitat I in 360 and 276 in the Habitat II. The diversity index of natural regenera- tion for the Habitat II and habitat I were 1.21 and 0.8 Nats.individual - 1 . It was concluded that human activities were able to change the vegetation structure and species diversity in both habitats significantly.

The population density is one of the factors that affect the final yield of crops, being easily ma-nipulated by man. The objective was to evaluate the growth of castor bean plants cv BRS Energia in dense pop-ulations through primary data and non-destructive analysis of growth and identify which period greater vegeta-tive growth occurs. We adopted a randomized block design with five treatments and four replications, totaling 20 experimental units. Each experimental unit contained 4 m wide and 6 m in length, representing 24 m². Treatments involving five populations of plants 10.000; 16.666; 25.000; 50.000; 100.000 plants ha-1, with a spacing of 1 m between rows and 1; 0.6; 0.4; 0.2 and 0.1 m between plants, respectively. It was determined: stem diameter, plant height, leaf area, leaf area index and rates absolute and relative leaf growth, of stem diam-eter, of plant height and of fresh biomass epigeal. The castor bean BRS Energia has the highest rates of vegeta-tive increase between 15 and 45 days after emergence. Therefore, it is of great importance, in this period, pro-vide the plant water and nutrient conditions appropriate so that does not compromise on plant development.

The present work was accomplished with the objective of evaluating the drying effect on the peanut fruits physical properties. Peanut fruits with an initial moisture content of 0.63 decimal db were dried with a temperature of 40 ºC. Bulk density, true density, porosity, thousand - grain weight, sphericity, circularity, projected area, surface area and surface/volume ratio physical properties were determined. Based on these re- sults, it is concluded that reducing the moisture content promotes reduction in all the physical properties of pea- nut fruits, except the surface/volume ratio that have their values increased with the moisture content reduction. The circularity as sphericity of the peanut fruit values was reduced during the drying process.

This study aimed at evaluating the performance of Nelore cattle during growth classified for different classes of frame size regarding body weights and morphometric measures at different ages. Weights and morphometric measures Nelore bulls up to 1 year of age were monthly recorded. The characteristics evalu-ated were birth weight, 120, 205, 240 and 365 days of age, withers height and rump height, thoracic perimeter, distance between pin bones, distance between hip bones and chest width, depth of chest, space under sternal and hip length. Frame size scores classified as medium, large and extreme, were estimated using equations and tables according to Beef Improvement Federation (BIF). Data were subjected to analysis of variance and Tukey-Kramer test at 5% probability and analyses were performed by canonical variables and the grouping analyses of genotype by method of Tocher. The animals with larger class of frame size were heavier and morphometric measurements as well, when compared with animals classified for smaller class. The correlation between weight at different ages were higher. The weight correlates with body features positively, indicating that the weight gain of the animals increased their influence on the frame size. Cluster analysis resulted in three distinct genetic groups that have similar within the group and genetic divergence between them.

Passion fruit is one of the major fruit crops grown in Brazil, however, the state of Mato Grosso culture has much to be explored. Thus, the aim of the study was to estimate the gain of plant selection of pas-sion fruit on the quality of fruit via REML/BLUP. The experiment was conducted in the State University of Mato Grosso, in its experimental area, in Tangará da Serra, Mato Grosso. It was evaluated eight crossing of commercial cultivars. It was used a randomized block experimental design with ten replications of ten plants per plot. From the genetic value found by the REML/BLUP methodology, it was applied the Mulamba Mock selection index in order to rank all individuals, selecting the 30 plants that showed the best performance for the evaluated characteristics. The high heritability values in the strict sense of the characteristics fruit weight (87%) and fruit length (65%) indicate possibilities for individual plant selection. The selection gain aiming fresh con-sumption was high for the characteristics fruit weight (13.38%), peel thickness (4.37%) and SST/ATT relation (3.61%). For industrial production selection requires special attention to the characteristics PP, SST and ATT, but the gains for PP (1.53%) and TSS (0.95%) did not stand out, however, the selection has raised other im-portant features as EC (-7.46%), CF (3.75%) and MF (1.77%).

Several factors are involved in the formation of soil aggregates, specially chemical, physical and biological origin. The glomalin, a protein produced by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), is one of the substances associated with soil aggregation. The aim of this study was to quantify the levels of soil organic carbon and glomalin in different vegetation types in Caatinga biome in Araripe plateau - Ceará state, and verify the relationship with aggregate stability and seasonality. Soil samples were carried out in dry and rainy seasons, in three vegetation types (Brejo de altitude, Carrasco and Cerradão) in Araripe National Forest to determine the water stability aggregate, soil total carbon, particulate carbon and glomalin. Seasonality effect was observed in the levels of easily extractable glomalin, suggesting that this fraction of glomalin is more sensitive to seasonal variations. The highest correlations were observed between the variables soil carbon and both fractions of glomalin, indicating that the protein produced by AMF is directly related to the amount of carbon, in addition to being an important component in soil aggregation of the Araripe.