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.

The predatory mite Euseius alatus DeLeon has been reported in several economic crops in Brazil, with certified importance in fruit trees and coffee. In order to establish an integrated pest management program it is important to determine the efficient pesticides in pests control, but presenting low impact to predators. This work had the objective of evaluating the toxicity of acaricides (abamectin, azocyclotin, diafenthiuron, dicofol, sulphur, fenpropathrin, fenpyroximate, propargite, tetradifon) to eggs and adult females of E. alatus. Leaf discs of "feijão de porco" (Canavalia ensiformes L.) containing 10 eggs of E. alatus were immersed into the acaricides dilutions, during five seconds, and dried for 30 minutes under room temperature. Treated eggs were observed up to 72h to determine egg survival. The residual effect of the same acaricides to adult females of E. alatus was studied using arena constituted by treated leaf disc. Ten adult females were confined per arena, 30 minutes, 24h and 72h after immersing the discs into the acaricides dilutions. Mortality was measured 24, 48 and 72h after confining the females on the treated leaf discs. All tested acaricides showed low impact on egg survival, except for fenpropathrin that caused reduction of egg survival at rate of 66%. The acaricides azocyclotin, diafenthiuron, tetradifon and abamectin caused 100% of mortality to adult females. Otherwise, diafenthiuron (500g de a.i./Kg), fenpyroximate (50g de a.i./L), propargite (720g de a.i./L) and tetradifon (80g de a.i./L) caused lower impact to adult females of E. alatus and, therefore, being of potential recommendation into an integrated pest management.

The research was conducted in order to compare the methodology recommended on Seeds Analysis Rules, regarding substrate and temperature, for the germination test of linted and delinted cottonseeds. Seeds of the cultivar 7MH from the 98/99 season of Morada Nova-CE were divided into two samples. Two assays were done: inthe first, seeds were delinted with sulfuric acid (98%), for three minutes, being later washed in current water, while in the second, seeds were maintained with linter. Both samples were put to germinate on towel paper, cotton cloth and sand substrates, on fixed temperatures at 25ºC, 30ºC and alternated temperatures of 20-30ºC (20ºC/16h and 30ºC/8h). For each treatment, 400 seeds were used, being eight sub-samples of 50 seeds for paper and cloth substrates. The analysis were done in a seven days interval, being the first counting done at the fourth day and the final at the seventh day after the sowing. Two experiments were done to evaluate linted and delinted seeds, using the completely randomized design, with four replications, in a 3x3 factorial scheme. One concluded that for delinted seeds the germination test must be conducted on cloth cotton or paper towel substrate, atfixed temperature of 25ºC or 30ºC or alternated of 20-30ºC; for linted seeds, the best was cloth at alternated temperature of 20-30ºC.

The tebuthiuron residue, used in the sugar-cane culture, can be found in soil until two or more years after its application. Recent researches are being done using the phytoremediation in the attempt of removing it from the soil. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the effectiveness of the green manure use in the phyitoremediation of the tebuthiuron herbicide. The evaluated species were: Cajanus cajan, Canavalia ensiformis, Dolichos lablab, Pennisetum glaucum, Estizolobium deeringianum, Estizolobium aterrimum and Lupinus albus. These were sown and cultivated in pots containing soil treated with different doses of tebuthiuron (0.0; 0.5; 1.0; and 1.5 kg.ha-1). A control treatment without green manure, submitted to the same dosages, was kept. Sixty days after planting, green manure aerial part of all plants were harvested and soybean was sowed in the same pot, to bioassay accomplishment. Sixty days after sowing, the soybean plants were harvested, being the following evaluations carried out: height of plants, phytotoxicity symptoms and plants above ground dry biomass and leaf area. Until 0.5 kg.ha-1 tebuthiuron dosage, the species that better phytoremediated this herbicide was L. albus. When the soil was treated with tebuthiuron at 1.0 kg.ha-1, the C. ensiformis, followed by L. albus and S. aterrimum, they were the treatments that better phytoremediated tebuthiuron because results in highest plant height, above ground dry biomass and lesser phytotoxicity symptoms and still the biggest foliar area of the soybean plants. When the tebuthiuron was applied at 1.5 kg ha-1 dosage, it was impossible to evaluate the phyitoremediation, as the tested plants were eliminated.

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 objective of this work was to evaluate the residual nitrogen contents behavior in a soil fertilized with four different nitrogen sources (ammonium sulfate, calcium nitrate, urea and monoamonium phosphate) at dosage of 80 kg.ha-1, divided in 2, 3, 4 and 5 parcels, applied through drip irrigation on the melon production, in field conditions, at the Fazenda Cajazeiras, located in Tibau, RN, Brazil. A 4 x 4 factorial, completely randomized block split-plot design, with four replications was used. Soil samples were collected before planting and 40 days after the first nitrogen use to the depth intervals of 0-15, 15-30, 30-45 and 45-60 cm, on which total mineral nitrogen, NH4 +, NO3 - e NO2- was determined. A differentiated behavior of the nitrogen sources regarding the ammonium furnishing to the soil was observed, existing a decreasing tendency of the ammonium contents with the increase of the fertilization partitioning and soil depth. For nitrate the highest concentrations were found on the surface interval and no effect of the fertilizer partitioning was observed. The highest concentrations of nitrite were found on the 30 - 45 cm depth interval and the total mineral nitrogen was concentrated mainly on the root absorption region. The biggest accumulation of total mineral nitrogen in the soil was originated from employment of MAP and ammonium sulfate and the lesser accumulation was due to urea use.

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 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).

Different substrates were tested, aiming to verify the ones that provided better development conditions for the mandacaru without thorns (Cereus hildemannianus K. Schum.). The work was carried out in the period from January to December 2005 in room temperature at Embrapa Semi-Árido, Petrolina, Pernambuco State, Brazil. A randomized blocks design, in a 5 X 3 factorial with five treatments and four replications, was used. The treatments consisted of five different substrate compositions and three plant types. Bud number, length, weight and dry matter of the flowers, besides weight, length and diameter of the roots were evaluated 360 days after planting. The substrates composed by sand, soil and cattle manure, presented the highest percentages of mandacaru buds growth.

This work had as objective to evaluate spatial variability of physical characteristics of a Typical Haplocambids (CX), under papaya culture, by means of the geostatistic. The analyzed area presented 43 sampling points , where soil samples were collected, in the layer of 0 ¿ 0.2 m. In the soil samples granulometry, soil bulk density, particles density, water content at tension of 0.03 and 1.5 MPa were measured. From these analyses the total porosity and water availability were calculated. Data were evaluated by descriptive statistics and by analysis of the spatial dependence based in semivariograms adjustment. The variation coefficient indicated low variability for total and coarse sand contents, water content at tension of 0.03 and 1.5 MPa, soil bulk and particles density and total porosity; and medium for clay, silt e available water contents. Except for water content at tension of 0.03 and 1.5 MPa and particles density, the other variables presented space dependence, being the spherical and exponential models adjusted to all the semivariograms. The nugget effect had small contribution in the data total variance, indicating strong spatial dependence for fine sand and clay contents, total porosity and available water. The other variables showed moderate dependence. There was a great variation in the distance until where the physical characteristics of the ground present spatial dependence (reach).