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 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 systems of harvesting sugar cane can cause changes in fertility, quantity and quality of organic matter and the degree of oxidation, altering soil carbon stocks. Given this context, the objective was to evaluate the production of dry biomass (DB), soil fertility, the content of total organic carbon (TOC), the car- bon in particle size fractions (particulate organic carbon (COp) and organic carbon associated with minerals (COam)) and oxidizable organic matter fractions (F1, F2, F3, F4 and F1 / F4) in manual harvesting (CMa) and mechanized (CMe) of sugar cane. The sampling for biomass production was conducted in area of 1 m 2 at four points per plot, soil samples were collected at depths of 0.00 - 0.05; 0.05 - 0.10; 0.10 - 0.20 and 0.20 - 0.40 m. The average annual production of dry biomass in the area CMe was 17 times higher when compared to the area of CMa; The pH and phosphorus content was significantly lower in the larger depths area CMa when compared with that of Cme; the harvesting system caused significant CMe in TOC, COp and COam depth 0.00 - 0.05 m increases when compared to the CMa system; There were not significant differences in the oxidizable fractions (F1, F2, F3 and F4) of the organic carbon in the areas of CMa and CMe.

It is proposed to evaluate the growth of tomato plants grown in soil covered with different types of material. The experiment was conducted at WG Fruit Farm in Baraúna-RN during the period from July to November 2008. The experimental design was a randomized complete block with four replications. The treat- ments were arranged in split plots. The plots were the types of ground cover: bare soil (control), black polyeth- ylene film (double-sided black), silver polyethylene film (double-sided black and silver), white polyethylene film (double-sided black and white) and black row cover (TNT), and the subplots sampling dates of plants of the hybrid tomato Mariana at intervals of fourteen days, from the seedling stage (14, 28, 42, 56, 70, 84 and 98 days after transplanting, DAT). The plants were harvested in the surface area of each plot, partitioned into leaves, stems, flowers clusters and fruit, and placed in an oven with forced circulation at 65 oC, until constant weight is gotten. The characteristics assessed were: dry matter accumulation of leaves, twigs, flower clusters, fruit, total leaf area and leaf area index. Based on the dry mass of leaves, twigs, flower clusters, fruit and total, it was quantified partition of treated tomato grown in different mulching. Mulching treatments affected the growth of tomato plants with black row cover, white polyethylene and bare soil registering the highest mean of total dry matter, leaf area and leaf area index. The maximum leaf area index was obtained at 71 DAT in the treatments with black row cover (2.88), non-covered soil (2.36), white polyethylene (2.21), 77 DAT in silver polyethylene (2.17) and black polyethylene (1.72). At the end of the cycle, the plant has accumulated a mean of 28.30%, 11.98%, 3.92% and 55.82% of dry leaves, twigs, flowers and fruit clusters, respectively. Key words: Solanum lycopersicon L, dry mass accumulation, assimilate partitioning, leaf area.It is proposed to evaluate the growth of tomato plants grown in soil covered with different types of material. The experiment was conducted at WG Fruit Farm in Baraúna-RN during the period from July to November 2008. The experimental design was a randomized complete block with four replications. The treat- ments were arranged in split plots. The plots were the types of ground cover: bare soil (control), black polyeth- ylene film (double-sided black), silver polyethylene film (double-sided black and silver), white polyethylene film (double-sided black and white) and black row cover (TNT), and the subplots sampling dates of plants of the hybrid tomato Mariana at intervals of fourteen days, from the seedling stage (14, 28, 42, 56, 70, 84 and 98 days after transplanting, DAT). The plants were harvested in the surface area of each plot, partitioned into leaves, stems, flowers clusters and fruit, and placed in an oven with forced circulation at 65 oC, until constant weight is gotten. The characteristics assessed were: dry matter accumulation of leaves, twigs, flower clusters, fruit, total leaf area and leaf area index. Based on the dry mass of leaves, twigs, flower clusters, fruit and total, it was quantified partition of treated tomato grown in different mulching. Mulching treatments affected the growth of tomato plants with black row cover, white polyethylene and bare soil registering the highest mean of total dry matter, leaf area and leaf area index. The maximum leaf area index was obtained at 71 DAT in the treatments with black row cover (2.88), non-covered soil (2.36), white polyethylene (2.21), 77 DAT in silver polyethylene (2.17) and black polyethylene (1.72). At the end of the cycle, the plant has accumulated a mean of 28.30%, 11.98%, 3.92% and 55.82% of dry leaves, twigs, flowers and fruit clusters, respectively.

The objective of this study was to propose monthly average values of Class “A” pan (Kp) for the Pajeu Middle region, as well as analyze the theirs effects in the estimate of agricultural crop evapotranspira- tion (ETc). Evaporation values of class "A" pan and daily weather data from a series of 1999 to 2011 were used. From the daily values of odd-numbered years were obtained monthly values of reference Kp (Kpref). That series was used in the implementation of six methods of estimation of the Kp. The values found have been sub- jected to an analysis of variance and t-test (p > 0.05). The performance of the Kp values was done by estima- tion of the accumulated ETc values of the six agricultural crops. It was verified that the Kpref provided the best statistical indexes and minor errors in the estimate of ETc. The methods of Pereira et al. and the FAO case A should the best estimates among those evaluated. On the other hand, the Snyder and FAO case B methods were those of the worst performances. The performance of the estimation of the ETc in the Middle Pajeu, using the evaporation values of Class "A" pan, is conditioned by the time of year and crop to be explored.

This study aims to provide doses of P 2 O 5 rates in Regolithic Neossoil, and evaluate the phos- phorus waste (P) in the soil and leaf content in three successive cowpea - beans crops. The experiment was car- ried out at field conditions, in Areia city – PB, in the period January to December 2007 in a randomized block with six treatments (0, 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 kg ha - 1 P 2 O 5 ) and four replications. The first crop production variables (green beans per plant (PGVP), productivity of pods (PV) and dry beans (PGS) as a function of the above treatments, and in the last two harvests, the same variables in the production function were evaluated residual phosphorus in the soil. Phosphorus content after the first crop (49.53 mg dm - 3 ), corresponding to a residue (38.33 mg dm - 3 ) was higher initially to that in soil (11.2 mg dm - 3 ) before the first crop. Foliar - P for the highest values were observed for the first crop. Already the third crop, introduced himself as one of lower con- centration of P in the leaves, 1.56 g kg - 1 . The dose of 280 kg ha - 1 P 2 O 5 gave residue in P sufficient for the maxi- mum production of green beans per plant of 252 g, the second crop soil's estimated maximum yield of pods, 6.3 to 7.3 t ha - 1 at the first and second crops were obtained with Keywords : Vigna unguiculata . Phosphorus waste. yield.

The productivity of passion fruit in Maranhão State, Brazil, is very low, because the deficient utilization of technologies by the smallholders. The present study was carried out to evaluate the effect of polli- nation on the fruiting set and fruit quality, and the frequency of visiting on flowers of carpenter bees (Xylocopa spp.) on passion fruit species Passiflora edulis Sims f. flavicarpa Deg. And Passiflora edulis Sims f. edulis).The treatments of field experiment was formed by the methods of pollination: opened, controlled and manual, using six flowers per plant in five plants of the two passion fruit forms. The frequency of visiting of Xylocopa spp. to the flowers was taken in five intervals of time. The controlled and manual pollination pre- sented higher fruit set per plant in the two passion fruit forms. In the monitoring of visiting, the flowers of yel- low passion received a greater number of visitors from 14 h and in purple passion fruit the visits were retarded in one hour. The frequency of visiting of carpenter bees to the flowers of yellow passion fruitis closely related to the provision of flowers per plant. The manual pollination ofyellow passion fruit resulted fruits with higher total weight, mass of pulp and seed number in relation to opened pollination. Different results were verified to purple passion fruit.

The undesirable effects of agrotoxics have aroused the interest of society to use alternative tactics of pest control, as plants with insecticidal activity, which can be used as powders, aqueous and organic extracts, essential oils and emulsifiable. This way, the toxicity, population growth and repellence of aqueous extracts of plants were evaluated on the cassava green mite, Mononychellus tanajoa . Aqueous extracts of Cro- ton blanchetianus , Myracrodruon urundeuva and Ziziphus joazeiro were used, in which were immersed in cas- sava leaf discs (3.5 cm diameter). The extracts at all concentrations (1, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25%) resulted in a de- cline in the pest population. The concentrations of 20 and 25% of the extracts resulted in the highest percentage mortality of the pest. All extracts in concentrations of 15, 20 and 25% for adult females were repellents M. ta- najoa .

The reuse of waters served in industries is winning space in the current days, in face of possibility of its use in agriculture. It was aimed with this work to evaluate the effect of levels of available water in the soil and of effluents of industries of supply Campina Grande, Paraíba state, Brazil, on the chemical attributes of the soil and on the phytomass and production variables of the castor oil plant, variety BRS Nordestina. The experiment was in greenhouse in entirely randomized design in factorial scheme 5 x 3 with 3 repetitions, with 5 water types and 3 available soil water levels. The studied treatments promoted increase in all soil chemical attributes at the end of the experiment. The interaction types of water and levels of available water in the soil was significant for all phytomass and production variables, except for the length of the root. The largest value for the phytomass and production variables was obtained for the treatment with 100% of available water in the soil and wastewater of COTEMINAS. however, the number of male flowers didn't suffer significant effect of the levels of available water of the soil with the wastewater of COTEMINAS.

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.