The blossom-end rot of tomato is characterized by the appearance of a necrotic tissue in the distal part of the fruit. This disorder is not caused directly by the calcium deficiency, but it results from the ex-pression of some genes in stress conditions. Interactions between temperature, water availability, high saline or ammonium concentration, etc., control the appearance of the blossom-end rot in the fruits. The aim of this pa-per was to evaluate the influence calcium and ammonium on the productivity and blossom-end of tomatoesgrown hydroponically. The experiment was carried out in the green house of the Department of Agronomy of the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, and consisted of factorial arrangement between six levels of cal-cium and two levels of ammonium in the nutrient solution (6 x 2), with six replications in experimental design of randomized blocks. Calcium treatments were the concentrations of 120, 140, 170, 200, 240 and 280 mg L-1, and ammonium treatments were the absence of this cation in the nutrient solution and the addition of 28.4 mg L-1, corresponding to 15% of total-N of the nutrient solution. The blossom-end rot, productivity, fruit diameter and number of fruits were evaluated. The data were submitted to the analysis of the variance and regression. The calcium addition caused a reduction in the tomato productivity, and the treatments with ammonium caused a lesser incidence of blossom-end rot. | A podridão apical do tomate é caracterizada pelo aparecimento de tecido necrótico na parte distal do fruto. No entanto esta desordem não é necessariamente causada pela deficiência de cálcio, mas o resultado da expressão de algum gene em condições de estresse. Interações entre temperatura, disponibilidade de água, altas concentrações salinas ou de NH4+, entre outros, controlam o aparecimento da podridão apical nos frutos. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar a influência dos teores de cálcio, com ou sem adição de amônio sobre a produção por planta e podridão apical do tomate cultivado hidroponicamente. O experimento foi conduzido no telado do Departamento de Agronomia da Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, e constou de um arranjo fatorial de seis doses de cálcio e duas concentrações de amônio na solução nutritiva (6 x 2), com seis repetições e dispostas em delineamento experimental em blocos casualizados. Os tratamentos com cálcio foram nas concentrações de 120, 140, 170, 200, 240 e 280 mg L-1, os tratamentos com amônio foram a ausência deste cátion na solução nutritiva e o acréscimo de 28,4 mg L-1, que correspondeu à proporção de 15% de amônio em relação ao N-total da solução nutritiva. Foi avaliada a incidência de podridão apical, produção por planta, peso médio, diâmetro e número de frutos por planta. As variáveis foram submetidas à análise da variância e regressão. A adição de cálcio provocou uma diminuição na produtividade do tomateiro, e os tratamentos contendo amônio apresentaram uma menor incidência de podridão apical.

The cladodes size is an important feature when selecting cuttings for red pitaya (Hylocereus undatus (Haw.) Britton & Rose) seedling production. The paper was carried out with the aim of evaluating dif-ferent sizes of cladodes in the production of dragon fruit seedlings. The experimental design was randomized blocks with five treatments, which were the cladodes sizes: 5; 10; 15; 20 and 25 cm, with four replicates and four cladodes per plot. After 80 days of the experiment, there were evaluated: number of shoots per plant, per-centage of rooting, length of greater root and dry weight of roots. The size of cladodes directly influences the production of seedlings. The lengths of cladodes from 15 to 25 cm are the most suitable for the dragon fruit seedlings. | O tamanho do cladódio é uma característica importante no momento de selecionar as estacas para a formação de mudas de pitaia vermelha (Hylocereus undatus (Haw.) Britton & Rose). O trabalho foi realizado com o objetivo de avaliar diferentes tamanhos de cladódios na produção de mudas de pitaia vermelha. O deli-neamento experimental utilizado foi em blocos casualizados, com cinco tratamentos, que foram os tamanhos dos cladódios: 5; 10; 15; 20 e 25 cm, com quatro repetições e quatro cladódios por parcela. Após 80 dias da instalação do experimento, foram realizadas as avaliações das seguintes características: número de brotações por planta, percentual de estacas enraizadas, comprimento da maior raiz e massa seca das raízes. O tamanho do cladódio interfere no percentual de enraizamento e no desenvolvimento das mudas. Estacas formadas por cla-dódios de 15 a 25 cm são as mais indicadas para a formação de mudas de pitaia vermelha.

Mastitis is responsible for expressive losses in the breeding systems of ovine due to the low development of lambs or death because of starvation, beyond precocious discarding and occasionally the death of sheep. Studies had been carried through to determine the occurrence of mastitis in the north of Minas Gerais, to characterize the main etiological agents involved and identify the predispose factors of handling to the disease. The occurrence of mastitis under the clinical form was 11.19% and under the sub clinical form 54.54% of the analyzed cases, predominating as etiological agent the coagulase-negative staphylococci. The epidemiologist characterization of the frequency of the installations cleanness (P<0.05) and the practical of depletes of females (P<0.01) presented relation of dependence with the occurrence of illness, having been this work a contribution for the elaboration of prophylactic rules of mastitis in ovine breeding in the north of Minas Gerais.

Substrates containing 0, 10, 20, and 40% (v/v) of urban waste compost were evaluated for the production of Jatropha (Jatropha curcas L.) seedlings in polytube containers. At 40 days after planting, growth characteristics and macro nutrient content in shoot were determined. The urban waste compost added to the substrate promoted increase in Jatropha plants growth. The maximum growth was obtained with the estimated dose of 24% of compost mixed with subsoil material. Increments in the dose of compost caused linear increase in K, Mg, and S shoot content, but N and Ca contents were reduced by dilution, as the shoot dry mass increased more than the uptake of those nutrients.

The aim of this research was to investigate the similarity of water quality in space and time in the upland of Salgado watershed, Ceará, Brazil. Multivariate analysis/Cluster Analysis was used for this investigation. Water samples were took in nine stations, spread out along the rivers during March, May, July, August and September, 2005, totalizing 45 samples. The water quality attributes analyzed were: electrical conductivity (EC), chloride (Cl-), sulphate (SO4-2), soluble orthophosphate (OPS), nitrate (NO3-), dissolved oxygen (DO), bicarbonate alkalinity (BA), total coliforms (TC) and turbidity (T). Four homogeneous groups were identified. The water samples collected at rainfall season defined the dissimilarity of group 1 in relation to the others. This group showed the best water quality due to the dilution of salts. Water samples collected during the end of rain-fall season and began of dry season formed group 2. Waters sampled at dry season in stations located down of discharge point of effluents defined group 3. These stations presented the highest concentrations of Cl-, EC, SO4-2 and TC. The values of NO3- and TC defined the similarity of group 4. Although Cl-, SO4-2, DO, and TC influenced the cluster definition, the most important variables were EC and NO3-. The water quality similarity was defined by two factors: punctual pollution and climatic seasonality.

In order to evaluate the growth and accumulation of nutrients in watermelon 'Quetzal' grown under different levels of salinity of irrigation water, was developed in the period november/2007 to January 2008, an experiment at the Experimental Farm "Rafael Fernandes", University Federal Rural do Semi-arid (UFERSA) Mossoró-RN. The experiment was a randomized blocks design with four replications. The treatments were arranged in split plots with the plots represented by the salinity levels of irrigation water: 0.60, 1.69, 2.36, 3.46 and 3.98 dS m-1, and the subplots consist of samplings of plants: 12, 22, 32, 42 and 52 days after transplanting, DAT. In achieving the levels of salinity were mixed natural waters and / or saline in order to obtain approximate composition of natural waters in the region. Plant growth, expressed by the accumulation of dry matter and accumulation of macronutrients by watermelon over the age of the plants decreased with increasing water salinity. The largest increases of dry matter and macronutrients occurred after fruit set, which took place from 42 DAT. The period of greatest demand for phosphorus, potassium and calcium was 42-52 DAT, and nitrogen, and magnesium was 32-42 DAT. The order of extracted nutrients was K> N> Ca> Mg> P.

Water is a limiting factor for crop yields, for example yellow passion fruit, requiring from use of irrigation due to limitation of surface waters. This study aimed to evaluate irrigation levels and fruits quality in yellow passion fruit production in Semiarid conditions, thus an experiment was carried out. The seedlings were grown in greenhouse and transplanted in the field spacing 4 m x 2 m. The treatments studied were five water levels: 60; 80; 100; 120 and 140% from ETo, applied through drip irrigation with 4 repetition. The parameters evaluated were average fruit weight (g), yield (t ha-1), the pulp yield with seed (%), juice yield (%) and skin percentage (%). The results obtained in the experiment showed that the highest yield of hybrid passion fruit with average weight over 150 g, and the highest yield was obtained with the blade of 120% ETo. The yield of pulp with seeds was negatively affected by increased volumes of water for irrigation. Can use plant 120% ETo for the irrigation of yellow passion fruit 'IAC 273/277¿ to optimize production and improve fruit quality in semiarid conditions.

This work aimed to determine over the Brazilian territory extreme air temperatures: maximum (Tx) and minimum (Tn) absolute, using multiple regression techniques, orbital data and climatological. The data of Tx and Tn were observed between the years of 1961 and 1990 in 204 meteorological stations by the National Institute of Meteorology (INMET), and topography information was obtained from the program Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). The multiple regression models were validated with the observational data of 30 meteorological stations in different locations than those generated. The statistical analysis was performed using bootstrap techniques. The results showed that the multiple regression model for Tn presented good agreement with the observed data (R² = 0.86) showing no tendencies to overestimate or underestimate Tn. The Tn varied between -12 to 25 °C and the Tx between 31 and 42 °C. For the Tx the results were not as satisfactory. In a first approach, the limits of the Tn can be used for data quality control of the meteorological station. The map of Tn can be used to subsidize research in agroclimatic zoning in the region where these data are not available.

This study was conducted in the Private Reserve Mata do Jambreiro (912 ha), localized in the Iron Quadrangle, Minas Gerais, southeastern portion of the Espinhaço Range, which is predominantly covered by semideciduous seasonal montane forest. Three topographically and physiognomic similar areas located within a continuum forest fragment, distant by 1.3 to 1.5 km were sampled by the point-quadrat method. In each area, 30 points were marked. Individuals with a minimum perimeter at the breast height (PBH) of 15 cm were sampled, totaling 111 species belonging to 40 families. The most representative family was Fabaceae, with 14.29% of the total number of species. Low floristic similarity (5.3% to 34.4%) was observed between the areas, pointing out the importance of distribution of sample units in continuous fragments. Shannon diversity index (H') found was 4.22 and Pielou equability (J) 0.894. Soil analysis showed some differences in chemical composition between the three studied areas and was an important component for the interpretation of the floristic variation found. The low floristic similarity observed here for close areas justify the requirement of more detailed inventories by Brazilian Environmental Agencies for the legal authorization procedures prior to the establishment of new enterprising projects. Also, the professionals that conduct rapid inventories, mainly the Environmental Consultants, should give more attention to this kind of floristic variation and to the methods used to inventory complex forests.

This research performed an evaluation of the water distribution on the soil surface and in its profile in a subunit irrigated by microsprinkle cultivated with Annona muricata L., with the purpose of verifying the spatial distribution and quantification of the water availability in the soil profile. The data were collected in 28 spaced emission points of 10 x 24 m, forming a mesh for application of the geostatistics. In the surface evaluation it was determined the coefficient of emission uniformity and the irrigation efficiency, while in the subsurface evaluation the water availability was esteemed in three layers of the soil profile, 0-20, 20-40 and 40-60 cm, one and twenty-four hours after the irrigation, using a neutrons probe. The coefficient of irrigation uniformity found was of 84.69% with an irrigation efficiency of 76.22%. It was verified that, twenty-four hours after irrigation, the water content in the most superficial layers of the soil profile is below the correspondent to the wilting point, while in the deepest layers the water content overcomes the maximum capacity of soil water retention, in other words, humidity superior to field capacity.