The best period for sugarcane growth for Itambé, Pernambuco, Brazil, was evaluated, based on observed daily precipitation and potential evapotranspiration data, for years classified as "dry", "normal" or "rainy". Potential evapotranspiration monthly values were estimated through Hargreaves methods, and transformed into 10-days period averages. Ten-days period distribution of precipitation, full evapotranspiration and half of potential evapotranspiration are used to characterize sugarcane growth phase, by determination of pre-humid, humid and post-humid periods. Results show that the best period for the growth phase of this culture in Itambé region for dry years is from January 26th to September 28th, with 245 days duration and total precipitation of 822 mm. In normal years, it begins on March 9th and ends on October 5th, with 210 days duration, and precipitation of 1064 mm. For rainy years the best period for sugarcane growth phase begins on February 20th and ends on October 13th, with 235 days duration, and average precipitation of 1426 mm.

The objective of that research is to observe the reproductive capacity of earthworms of the species Eisenia foétida in different substrate, as well as your importance in the agriculture. The work was accomplished in the Center of Agrarian Sciences of the Federal University of the Paraíba-Areia/PB. In that research the following treatments were used: T1 - Compost of homelike Garbage (50kg); T2 - Compost of homelike garbage and culture remains (25 + 25 Kg); T3 - Compost of homelike garbage, culture rest and manure (35+10+5 Kg); T4-compost of homelike garbage with manure biodigested (35+10+5Kg); T5-compost of garbage, rest of cultures and manure biodigested (35+10+5Kg); T6 - Humus coming from bovine manure (50kg); T7-soil (witness). During the first forty six days of composting the temperature was verified twice a day (9 A.M and 15:00 P.M). In this same period, it was controlled the humidity and the aeration twice a week, being turned over the whole material. All the treatments show that the earthworms are capable of reproduce in the most several substrate, although the T5-composed of garbage, rest of cultures and manure biodigested (35+10+5Kg) it has overcome the others.

The high incidence of the solar radiation and temperature and the high annual variability of the rainfall during the year in the region of semiarid Paraiba, contribute for the losses of CO2 of the soil. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the microbial activity according the emissions of C-CO2 in a micro basin which is in a process of environmental degradation in Paraíba semiarid, located in the "Fazenda Experimental Bacia Escola, CCA, UFPB" in São João do Cariri, PB, during a translation, in the years of 2003 to 2004. Five points of determination had been choosed in a toposequence where there vas evaluated the microbial activity by the C-CO2 production. In the rainy season the tax of losses of CO2 of the soil diminished independent of the position of determination in the toposequence. In the dry season, when there was some pluviometric precipitation, the tax of edaphic respiration, expressed in terms of losses of CO2 from the soil to the atmosphere, increased with the water availability of the soil.

The use of fungicides is a key measure of control used to halt the vine decline in melon by Monosporascus cannonballus. This study aimed to ascertain the effectiveness of the active principles fluazinam and methyl thiophanate in control of M. cannonballus in melon. Melon plants (yellow type) were grown in pot with soil naturally infested with the pathogen. The soil was originated from areas with a history of vine decline in melons. It was used a design in DIC with 10 treatments and 5 replications. The treatments consisted of increasing doses of these active principles alone or in combination. Were utilized two controls: autoclaved soil and naturally infested soil. The parameters analyzed were fresh weight of roots, damage to hypocotyl in primary and secondary roots. The analysis of variance indicated that all treatments that showed the presence of active principle fluazinam differ significantly from other treatments. In addition, the analysis did not indicate differences among the doses used in the experiment. Thus, it appears that this active principle can be recommended at its lowest dose to control the disease once it is properly registered to this crop. It was found phytotoxic effects of the active principle methyl thiophanate in melon plants during this experiment.

The study was carried out in Fazenda Pau Ferro, Itaperuna - RJ, to evaluate soil quality attributes in pastures areas, Braquiária (Brachiaria brizantha (Hochst. ex A. Rich.) Stapf), Suázi (Digitaria swazilandensis Stent) and Tifton 85 (Cynodon spp. cv Tifton 85) cultivated in hill relief. Soil samples were collected at 0-10 and 10 -30 cm depth in two times; dry period (August of 2004, May of 2005 and August of 2005) and in the rainy period (December of 2004) in different sections: at the hillside shoulder (TS), backslope (TM) and footslope (TI) positions. In the samples soil chemical and physical analyses were accomplished. Were evaluated the soil aggregate stability; the bulk density (BD) and the total volume of pores (TVP), total organic carbon (TOC) and soil fertility. To study the multidimensional effect of soil attributes the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied. The pastures areas showed a good aggregation levels, in the different times and depths evaluated. The grasses Tifton 85 and Braquiária propitiated a higher TOC contribution in the depth of 0-10 cm and also larger aggregate weight in the class> 2,0mm, in the dry period. Higher values of BD were observed in the TI. In the rainy period it was observed a BD reduction and TVP increase, mainly for the Suázi areas. In a general way, the positions of the hillside TS and TM were the ones that showed the higher values for the physical and chemical attributes indicating a better soil quality in these areas. In the TI area the lowest levels of soil quality were observed, possibly for the accentuated steepness of this last position of the slope in relation to the other positions. The PCA separated the areas in function of seasonal variation. The dry season presented the higher correlation values with soil quality attributes such as the aggregation indexes and TOC. The aggregate weight distribution in function of the size classes, especially > 2,0 mm, MGD, MWD and TOC were a indicative sensitive to the effects of the treatments, grasses types and seasonal variation.

Yellow passion fruit crop (Passiflora edulis f. flavicarpa Deg.) and natural insume use on agriculture are increasing in Remígio county Paraíba State, Brazil. In this direction was carried out an experiment, during July 2005 to December 2006 in randomized blocks in order to evaluate the effects of absence and presence of biofertilizers comum (bovine manure fertilizer fresh and water) and supermagro (bovine manure, water, macronutrients and micronutrients), applied to soil on liquid form, in level of 2.4 L plant-1, 30 days before and two months after transplanting, in the absence and presence of mineral fertilizer with NPK, with three repetition and six plantas per set using a factorial designs 3x2. The biofertilizers show more reliable to growth than fruit production of yellow passion fruit. Biggest production corresponded to treatments with the use of mineral fertilizer, specially in the first production. Comum and supermagro biofertilizer gave significative effects on vegetative growth of plants of yellow passion fruit plant but had no influence on fruits production.

The study area involves the territory limit of the Boa Vista municipality, 446.30 km2, situated in the Cariris Velhos homogeneous micro region, semi-arid region of the Paraiba State. The present work had as objective the elaboration of thematic maps of the space-time evolution of vegetal covering classes, period 1987/2004, of the Boa Vista municipality using TM/LANDSAT-5 satellite's digital images and photo interpretation techniques and images digital processing, available in the SPRING v. 4.2 software, beyond field work. The maps were elaboration be using the segment images supervised classification method and edited by SCARTA module. The results had indicated that the covering vegetal class most conserving, dense to semi dense, suffered reduction of 13.93% between 1987 and 2004; in this period the percent of areas with semi-dense to semi-sparse class was practically steady, diminishing only 0.87%; besides, the more critical covering class (semi-sparse to sparse and sparse + exposed soil) had increased 9.02% and 5.73%, respectively. These results are related with the raised use of lands for cattle the extensive one, as well as for the lack of income of the agricultural population that without option uses the vegetation in the firewood form.

An experiment was carried out at a greenhouse of Plant Science Department of the Universidad Federal Rural do Semi-Arid (UFERSA), Mossoró-RN, in the period of May to June of 2006, with the objective of determing the best treatment with scarlet starglory (Ipomoea glabra) incorporated to with cattle manure on rocket performance cv. Folha Larga. A completely randomized desing with seven treatments and three replications. The treatment consist of: T1 - 113g pot-1 of scarlet starglory in green base plus 21g pot-1 of cattle manure; T2 - 76g pot-1 of scarlet starglory in green base plus 42g pot-1 of cattle manure; T3 - 38g pot-1 of scarlet starglory in green base plus 63g pot-1 of cattle manure; T4 - 151g pot-1 of scarlet starglory in green base; T5 - 84g pot-1 of cattle manure; T6 ¿ Fertilization with NPK at the recommended dose for the crop and T7 - Control (no Fertilized soil). The rocket cultivar grown was Folha Larga. The evaluated traits were: plant height, number of leaves per pot, shoo fresh and dry mass. All the evaluated traits were significantly affected by the amounts of scarlet starglory incorporated. Height mean value for plant height, shoo fresh, dry mass and number of leaves were obtained in the amount of scarlet starglory incorporated of 151 g pot-1.

Due to a great amount of environmental differences between in vitro and ex vitro conditions, the acclimatization phase of plantlets is one of the essential points to guarantee the success in obtaining micropropagated plants. Using a substrate with chemical and organic composition is important on this phase, because it will influence in the nutritional state of the seedlings. The present paper aimed to evaluate the effects of different substrate on acclimatization of fig plants 'Roxo de Valinhos'. It were selected uniform plantlets within a 5 cm of height which were transferred to the greenhouse, with an intermittent mist system, with 50% mesh of shadow by sombrite® planted in stereo foam trays where were submitted to the following treatments: Plantmax®; carbonized rice husk; soil in combination with Osmocote®; manure (3:1:1); NPKMg. The experimental design adopted was randomized blocks in factorial scheme and the evaluation was done one hundred and twenty days after the acclimatization by the following characteristics: plant high (cm), number of leaves/plant, dry weight of aerial part and roots and total weight (g/plant). As results, it was verified that on the acclimatization of fig plantlets 'Roxo de Valinhos' using of substrate soil + carbonized rice husk+ manure promotted highest number of leaves and largest weight of aerial dry matter were obtained Plantmax® substrate without any addition of fertilizers.

The effects of five levels of nitrogen (N) fertilization (0; 60; 120; 240 and 480 kg of N/ha) upon Buffel grass (Cenchrus ciliaris, L.) performance were evaluated. A completely random design with three replicates was used. Dry matter yield of aerial portion (DMYAP), dry matter yield of roots (DMYR), leaf/stem ratio (LSR), number of tillers (NT) and water use efficiency (WUE) were measured. The results showed a linear effect (P < 0.002) on DMYAP and DMYR and linear and quadratic effects (P < 0.02) on NT and WUE. LSR was not influenced by the nitrogen fertilization. Overall, it could be concluded that Buffel grass responded positively to nitrogen fertilization.