This work was carried out to investigate the effect maturity stage at harvest (M1, M2 and M3, corresponding to fruit with 20-25%, 45-50% and 70-75% of peel red color surface, respectively) of ‘Camila’ and ‘Laetitia’ plums, and then stored in conventional cold storage, on ripening and quality, especially regarding the incidence of flesh browning. Fruits were cold stored during 40 days (1±0.1 oC and 95±2% RH), followed by three days at ambient condition (23±5 °C and 60±5% RH). ‘Camila’ plums harvested at maturity stage M1 showed the poorest evolution of peel red color during cold storage. Only fruit harvested at stage M3 had a good flesh red color development. The values of flesh firmness and force for fruit compression were different be- tween maturity stages, being higher in M1 than in M2 and M3. On the other hand, fruit harvested at stage M1 had the highest force for flesh penetration. However, ‘Camila’ plums harvested with up to 50% of peel red color did not ripe satisfactory and had poor quality. ‘Laetitia’ plums showed satisfactory evolution of peel red color during cold storage, especially when harvested at stage M3. For this cultivar, the force for fruit compres- sion was different between maturity stages, in the following order: M1>M2>M3. Titratable acidity was highest in fruit harvested at stage M1, while ethylene production rate was highest for fruit harvested at stage M3. ‘Laetitia’ plums harvested at the three maturity stages had similar ripening during cold storage. However, fruits should not be harvested with 20-25% of peel red color since they will have a high intensity of flesh browning during cold storage.

The use of Silicon on the plants cultivation is one the most used strategy in order to reduce the negative effects of soils salinity. The goal of this work is to evaluate the influence of Silicon on minimizing the negative impacts due to salinity of irrigation water in the Jatropha curcas plants growth. The experiment was carried out at the National Center of Cotton Research, in a completely randomized design and treatments ar- ranged in a factorial 4 x 4 x 6, performed by four levels of salinity of irrigation water (0,43; 2,5; 5,0; and 7,5 dS m - 1 ), four levels of Silicon (0; 221,76; 443,52; and 665,28 mg L - 1 ) and six evaluation periods (40, 55, 70, 85, 100 and 115 days from emergence) with three replications. The analysis of variance, the F test and the polyno- mial regression to 0.05% significance were used to evaluate the data. hight plant, diameter stem plant, number of plant leaves, leaves plant area, total dry matter, dry matter roots plants e dry mass stem plants, dry mass of shoots and roots of Jatropha curcas were not affected by salinity of water at 115 days after sowing. The leaves number and leaf area were influenced by Silicon.

The ginger culture was planted in Espirito Santo State on a commercial scale for just over 10 years as an alternative income for farmers family based submitted high yield potential, but requires studies to their best advantage due to the great variability of climatic conditions of the State. The aim of this study was to evaluate the yield of fresh rhizomes, the dry mass of leaves and rhizomes and the extraction and accumulation of N, P and K of the culture depending on the application of increasing doses of P, in a dystrophic Ultisol . The experiment was conducted on a farm in the municipality of Santa Maria de Jetibá (ES) between the months of August 2006 and June 2007. Experimental model adopted was randomized blocks with four treatments and four replications. The treatments consisted of control (no P fertilization), and doses of 60, 120 and 240 kg ha - 1 of P 2 O 5 applied at planting. The plants showed continuous growth up to 180 days after planting (DAP) and the phase of the plant where there was greater uptake of N, P and K in the flowering cycle was at 240 DAP. Analy- zing the contents of N, P and K, in the rhizome and leaves over the cultivation cycle, it was observed that, in general, most of the accumulation occurred in the rhizome.

The inadequacy of sewage systems and water shortages in semi-arid Northeast is encouraging the reuse of water in the production of agricultural crops. This study aimed to analyze the effect of treated do- mestic sewage in the initial development of three melon cultivars in Mossoró-RN. The experiment was mounted on a split-plot in randomized blocks with plots cultivars of melon (Yellow Tikal, Cantaloupe type Harper and Gália) and the split-plots the proportions of water supply and domestic sewage (T1 - 100% water supply T2 - 50% of water supply and 50% of domestic sewage, T3 - 25% of water supply and 75% of domestic sewage and T4 - 100% domestic sewage) in three replicates. In the experimental period were analyzed for physico-chemical and microbiological characteristics of sewage and water supply. At 20 days after sowing was measured plant height, stem length, root length and stem diameter. The results showed that the fertirrigation of melon cultivars with domestic sewage minimizes the effect of water scarcity in semiarid. The development of cultivar Gália seedlings was not affected by application of primary domestic sewage. The T2 and T4 were the most suitable for the production of cultivar Gália seedlings.

The objective of this study was evaluate the morphological variability and existing production between peanut genotypes collected from small farmers in seven counties in Recôncavo of Bahia, in addition to selecting the most promising materials. Peanut seeds (60 genotypes) were collected along the ethnobotanical survey. Each genotype was collected from a zoned farmer in the study area. Experimental design was a randomized block with four replications. For morphological analysis of growth characteristics were evaluated: main stem height, number of leaves and number of branches also have assessed them components of plant production and productivity, which were evaluated: the volume of fresh and dried vegetable, fresh vegetable pasta and dried, the diameter and length of vegetables, total number of vegetables, total number of grains and the weight of 100 grains. The data were subjected to analysis of variance and means were compared by the Scott- Knott test at 5% probability. Although not shown variability the vegetative morphological characteristics, yield characteristics are indicative of the existence of variability, and why it has become possible to preselect seven peanut genotypes collected from farmers in the Recôncavo of Bahia, which may be considered important descriptors for the distinction of superior genotypes.

The study assessed sensorial aspects and physicochemical characteristics of two non- commercial genotypes of cherry tomato, CH152 and CLN1561, and compared them to the genotype Carolina, all grown organically. Ripened fruits of the three varieties were harvested at the same time, selected, cleaned and subjected to sensorial analysis by 50 adult testers. They used a 9-point hedonic scale to classify the fruits in terms of aroma, flavor, flesh color and general appearance. The physicochemical analyses determined pH, solu- ble solids (SS) and titratable acidity (AT). For the aspects aroma and general appearance, the 3 varieties ob- tained mean scores of 7.0 to 7.9, which corresponds to “like moderately”; and scored 8.0 to 8.9 to the attribute flesh color, which represents “like very much”. For the attribute flavor, the scores of “Carolina” tomatoes and CLN1561A corresponded to “like moderately, and for CH152 it was “like very much”. The mean values of physicochemical parameters (pH = 4.41 to 4.61; SS = 4.03 to 5.06; and AT = 335.13 to 369.23) were similar among the genotypes (ANOVA, P>0.05). In conclusion, both the varieties tested, CH152 and CLN1561, pro- duce fruits of high sensorial and physicochemical quality, showing potential for commercial exploitation.

The postharvest losses index for fruits in Brazil is high. To attend the quality exigencies and minimize those losses, it is initially necessary to detect the problems on the commercialization chain. Because of that, this study aimed to evaluate the postharvest losses in table grapes during the operations carried out in packinghouses of firms located in Petrolina-Pernambuco State/Juazeiro-Bahia State region and during the com- mercialization in Mercado do Produtor de Juazeiro. The study was carried out in three packinghouses and in three sell places of the Mercado do Produtor de Juazeiro. In the packinghouses, it was observed one day of ac- tivity, following the normal procedures. For sampling, the wasted fruits were weighted, characterized according the kind of loss and quantified before doing another weighting for each identified category. In Mercado do Pro- dutor de Juazeiro, the study was carried out in a similar way, including the same evaluations. Because of the rigorous quality criteria, the percentage of losses in table grapes in packinghouses was 3.9%. This percentage was higher than the value observed in Mercado do Produtor de Juazeiro, which was 1.5%. The main cause of postharvest losses in grapes was mechanical injury in both studied conditions.

The objective was to evaluate the cellulolytic activity of aerobic mycelian fungi from dairy cat- tle fed tropical forages. Isolates of fungi were obtained from 30 samples of rumen fluid from cows fed sorghum silage, 32 cows fed on Brachiaria brizantha , 12 heifers receiving sorghum silage and 11 heifers fed cane sugar. The isolation was performed on C solid medium containing cellulose. Were evaluated 49 isolates, 27 Aspergil- lus spp., four Gliocladium spp., six Paecilomyces spp., nine Rhizophus spp. and three Scedosporium . These isolates were incubated in C medium with 1% microcrystalline cellulose as the sole carborno source, and incu- bated at 37°C in triplicate. Cellulolytic activity indices were verified after 24, 48 and 72 hours and calculated by the ratio between degradation halo and colony diameter for comparing in nonparametric tests. The genus Aspergillus , showed higher cellulolytic activity index mean compared to Rhizophus genus (p <0.05). Eight iso- lates of Aspergillus spp. and six of Paecilomyces spp. showed this index higher than one, indicating potential for utilization in ruminant nutrition.

For applications in water management, estimation of evapotranspiration is a critical term in the water balance, to establish a sustainable development of activities that requires such action. So it is necessary to more accurately estimate the reference evapotranspiration (ETo). The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of daily ETo values obtained for 12 empirical methods by comparing them with the Penman- Monteith FAO. The meteorological data used for the empirical models were measured in the National Institute of Meteorology automatic meteorological station installed at the experimental station in Rafael Fernandes, Federal Rural University of Semi-Arid, Mossoró, RN. Even with some methods presenting divergences from the standard method in the months of the highest water demand with an absolute error of approximately 0.99 to 1.67, it could infer that the most suitable methods based on the performance index greater than 0.76 were: Benevides and Lopez (1970), Linacre (1983), Bruin (1979), Jensen and Hayse (1963) and Priestley and Taylor (1972), in that order, thus it may represent satisfactorily the ETo. The methods that require fewer climatic elements such as Benevides and Lopez (c = 0.85) and Linacre (c = 0.79) performed better than more complex to estimate ETo in daily periods at any time of year.

Anthracnose (Colletotrichum gloeosporioides) and dry rot (Phoma caricae-papayae) of papaya (Carica papaya) reduce fruit post-harvest storage life. Therefore, this study evaluated under laboratory conditions the effect of the hydrothermal treatment of fruits on these diseases. Two types of tests were conducted: (1) fruit immersion in hot water (48 ºC) for 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 min; and, (2) fruit immersion in hot water at 44, 46, 48 and 50 ºC / 20 min. The experiments were conducted in a randomized complete block design with five replications. Two isolates of C. gloeosporioides and one of P. caricae-papayae were tested in papaya fruits of cv. 'Sunrise Solo' and hybrid ‘Tainung 1’. Fruits were washed, wounded (3mm), inoculated (50μL, 106 conidia mL-1), placed in humid chamber (24 h), and then treated. After treatment, fruits were water cooled (13ºC/20 min) and stored (14 days) in cold chamber (13 ºC; 85-100% R.H.). Daily the diameter of lesions was evaluated for two weeks. Variations on time and temperature did not alter fruit firmness (kg cm-2), pH, total soluble solids (o Brix) e tritable acidity (% of citric acid) in comparison to non-treated fruits. However, in one case on ‘Tainung 1’ fruits, tritable acidity was higher at 48 ºC / 20 min. Fruits treated with hot water at 48 ºC / 20-30 min or 48-50 ºC / 20 min presented less fruit rots.