The effects of salinity on the plant are first noticed during the germination process. Therefore, the aim of this work was to evaluate germination and initial development stage of melon plants hybrids (Mandacaru and Vereda) in different levels of salinity of irrigation water. Research was conduted at the Seed Analysis Laboratory of the Department of Crop Science of the UFERSA from February to April 2007. The treatments were organized in a completely randomized design in factorial scheme 2 x 6 (two hybrids of melon plant Mandacaru and Vereda, and six levels of electrical conductivity ofirrigation water: 0,45; 1,95; 3,45; 4,95; 6,45 and 7,95 dSm-1), with four replicates. Evaluation of speed of emergence-index, height of the aerial part of the seedling, dry mass of the aerial part of the seedling and seedling emergence. Compared to the Vereda Hybrid, the Mandacaru proved to be the most tolerant to salinity due to higher estimates of the speed of emergenceindex, height of the aerial part of the seedling, dry mass of the aerial part of the seedling and seedling emergence in different levels of salinity of irrigation water.

The Brazilian Cherry (Eugenia uniflora L.) is a native species of Brazil species native to the southernof Brazil. The aerial part of the plant (leaves and fruits) contains essential oil high in sesquiterpenes, which is used in the cosmetics industry and popular medicine. Although it has great potential, information regarding the distillation of its essential oil is scarce. The objective of this study was to evaluate the post-harvest treatments of the aerial part in order to improve the extraction of essential oil. The samples were collected from terminal branches of the same access of Eugenia uniflora L. belonging to the collection of aromatic and medicinal plants of the Center ofHorticulture of the Agronomical Institute of Campinas, Sao Paulo State, Brazil, from May to June, 2005. The experiment was conducted in completely randomized blocks and a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial designs, with 3 replications, the factors being: two parts of the plant (leaves and branches), two methods of sample preparation (leaves and branches, whole or triturated) and two forms of the sample (fresh and frozen), totalizing eight treatments. The leaves were distilled in a modified Clevenger distiller for 3 hours. The frozen parts were kept for 7 days at -10oC before distillation. The highest concentration of essential oil is occurs in the leaves of Brazilian Cherry, with the twigs of the plant containing a small amount.. The freezing of the leaves reduced the oil yield as compared to that by others treatments, and the trituration of the vegetal material raised the extracted amount of oil.

The lack of information on seedlings production mainly with respect to the use of residuary water for irrigation and soil subtracts and the sustainability aspect of the production justified the present study. The work was conducted on a greenhouse using the flamboyant (Delonix regia) a forestall specie widely used on reforestation. It was used a randomized block design with four subtracts: soil, soil + NPK, soil + organic compost and soil + biossolid , and two irrigation waters: normal and residuary water, arranged in a factorial form, totalizing fifty six experimental units in seven blocks. At the end of 100 days the plant variables were measured and the data analyzed statistically. Treatments and interactions affected the number of leaves, leaf area, plant height and the aerial plant weight, observing the best results when the residuary water was used for irrigation and when the plant was developed on the soil + organic compost and soil + biossolid subtracts. For the stem diameter and root weight just the subtract nature affected the seedlings, obtaining the best results on the soil + organic compost subtract. The root length was not affected by the treatments.

The objective of this paper was to determine the phosphorus adsorption characteristics using the Langmuir isotherm. The study was carried out in the Laboratório de Irrigação e Salinidade, of Universidade Federal de Campina Grande, PB, Brazil, with surface (0-20 cm) samples from two soils of Paraiba State. The soil samples (2,5 g) were mixed with a CaCl2 0.01M (25 mL), with addition to 0; 35; 45; 55; 70; 85 and 100 mg L-1 of P as KH2PO4 and maintained in contact for 24 hours. The phosphorus was analyzed from the supernatant in order to determine the amount of P adsorbed by the soils. The maximum P adsorption capacity (MPAC) was determined for all soil through the linear model of the Langmuir equation. The Ultisol showed the highest values of the MPAC and PmCF and the Oxisol showed the highest adsorption energy. The results showed that the soil attributes that had influenced on soil MPAC were soil organic matter and clay content and thebase saturation.

With the purpose of evaluating effects of salinity of irrigation water on initial development of rootstocks of guava (Psidium guajava L), an experiment was conducted in greenhouse at Experimental Station of Pacajus, belonging to Embrapa Tropical Agroindustry in the State of Ceará. The treatments in randomized block design consisted of five levels of electrical conductivity of water (ECw: 0.5; 1.5; 2.5; 3.5 and 4.5 dS m-1) and two cultivars of guava (Rica and Ogawa) with four replications. The irrigation waters were prepared maintaining equivalent proportion of 7:2:1 respectively of Na:Ca:Mg. Seedlings were appraised 80 days after emergence, the effects, on number of leaves, plant height, diameter of stem, phytomass of the root and aerial parts, total phytomass, diameter, leaf area and root to aerial part ratio were studied. The increment of water salinity affected growth of cultivar in terms of number of leaves, stem diameter plant height, the Ogawa cultivar was found to be more affected. In highest level of water salinity (4.5 dS m-1) the relative reduction in total dry phytomass in case of cultivar Rica was 63.5% while the decrease in cultivar Ogawa was higher (77.4%); with regard to leaf area the effect was linear with reduction of 17.2% and 18.4%, respectively, for unit increase of water salinity. In cultivar Rica roots and in cultivar Ogawa the aerial parts were most affected negatively by water salinity.

The selection of rhizobium strains tolerant to salinity and temperature stress, typically of semi-arid regions, enhances the chance for introducing and establishing the air nitrogen fixing bacteria and cowpea association successfully, resulting in grain yield increases. Effects of factors, such as tolerance to different NaCl concentrations (1%, 2% and 3%) and two levels of high temperature (39º C and 42º C). were studied on seventy-six rhizobium strains isolated from cowpea root nodules in order to identify the relation to the origin region and their growth habit in YEM solid culture medium. In general, it was observed that bacteria from the "Sertão" region were more tolerant to high temperatures. On the other hand, results for the salinity study showed that as the salt concentration increased, the percentage of tolerant strains decreased. About 40% of the strains were able to grow in a culture medium with 1% of NaCl. At 2% of NaCl concentration, 17% of the total strains could grow and, from this amount, 15% came from the "Sertão" region and 24% from "Zona da Mata" region. At 3% NaCl concentration, only 12% of the strains were able to grow. From the 76 strains, around 10% were tolerant to high temperatures and to the NaCl levels used, one of them from the "Agreste" region, four from the "Sertão" region and 2 from the "Zona da Mata" region".

The present work had for objective to evaluate the quality of the yellow passion fruit marketed in Rio Branco, in the state of the Acre. This research was accomplished the months of April and May of 2006. It was collected fruits of four commercial establishments, being three supermarkets (A,B,C) and a free market (D). The experimental design was in randomized complete blocks with four treatments and seven replications (collection time). The experimental unit wasconstituted of fifteen fruits. Medium mass of the fruit of 177,62 g, revenue of pulp of 44,44%, thickness of the peel of 6,98 mm, color of the peel varying of 2 (partially it yellows) to 3 (totally it yellows), format index of 1,16, length of 90,26 mm, diameter of 73,83 mm and class varying from 3 to 4. The appearance intern e had index of 3,87 (seeds and pulp stuck to the endocarp and 80% of the juice in the arilos). Fruits with light damages in the of peel were 91,18% and 14,96% with deep damages, classified in the category III. The fruits presented the following composition: 38 mg 100g-1 of vitamin C, 11% of total soluble solids, 5,2% of titlatable total acidity total and ratio of 2,3. The medium price to the consumer was of R$2.55/kg. It was verified by the characteristics analyzed that the establishment A, B and C presented better quality of the fruits in relation to the medium mass, diameter, length and format index. The establishment B markets fruits with larger market price (R$3.68/kg). Therefore, the passion fruit marketed in the municipal district of Rio Branco it is of low quality and prices above the production cost.

The Cereus jamacaru it is a cactaceae plant very used in food of cows, caprines and sheeplike in the semi-arid of Brazilian Northeastern. The pH, soluble solids, ashes, total solids, moisture, insoluble solids and the yield of Cereus jamacaru samples were determined. Were utilized the bunch of an only plant, this went separates and processes as three types of samples; pulp of the storaging pancreas of water (central stalk), pulp of vascular cylinder of end bunch and of half of bunch (part between the central stalk and the epicarp of the plant). The resultswere statiscally evaluated according to completely randomize design, from which were verified that had significant difference among the samples as to the pH, ash, totals solids, moisture and insoluble solids. Were observed that the soluble solids (ºBrix) the pulps of vascular cylinder of half and the end the bunchs had the sames, had been less to the of pulp of central stalk. The largest yield was of the pulps of the vascular cylinder, about 75%.

The physical and chemical characteristics of quixaba fruits (Sideroxylon obtusifolium Penn.) the chop 2003/2004, harvested in Santa Terezinha region of State of Bahia, Brazil. It was used 450 fruits harvested at random the following physical and chemical analyses: pH, Soluble Solid (SS), Total Acidity (TA), ratio SS/TA, density, diameter, length, and volume of the fruits and pulp yield. The following average values were obtained: 24.13º Brix; pH 4.35, TA 0.4%, ratio SS/AT 63.32 and poor pulp yield (20.89%), which is compensated by the high fruit productivity per plant. The chemical analysis of quixaba¿s fruits presented desirable characteristics for industrialization. The Quixabeira is an alternative of native fruit for exploration in Semi-Arid region. Index terms: Native fruits, Semi-arid region, Quixabeira

The study was aimed of evaluating the nutritive value of silages from five corn hybrids (AG 122, AG9090, AG 5011, Dow 766 and DKB 747). The used five treatment with four replications in a completely randomized design to evaluate pH, ammonia nitrogen (N-NH3), dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), ether extract (EE), mineral matter (MM), neutral (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF), total carbohydrates (TC) and nonstructural carbohydrates (NSC). The ether extract rates (EE), mineral matter (MM), neutral (NDF) and acid detergent fiber (ADF) and non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) was not affected by corn hybrids. The AG 122, AG 9090 and DOW 766 did not differ significantly with values from pH the 3.42, 3.31 and 3.40, respectively. The AG 122 and DOW 766 showed maximum value of N-NH3 (2.89 mg/100ml). The lower values of N-NH3 was found inthe AG 9090 (0.87 mg/100ml) and DKB 747 (1.05 mg/100ml). The DOW 766 and AG 9090 had higher value of MS rates, 33.51 and 32.32 %, respectively. In the silages, the pH and N-NH3 values had demonstrated that five corn hybrids supplying a good fermentation standard, all the corn hybrids can be classified like a good quality for silages.