The fungus Sclerotinia sclerotiorum , handles significant losses in lettuce production. Being a soil borne fungus, its management is difficult, and an alternative is the use of biological control using species of the Trichoderma genus. Thus, the objectives of this study were to identify native species of Trichoderma spp. presents in the soil with (CP) and without white mold (SP), evaluate the growth rate and in vitro antagonism of Trichoderma spp. against S. sclerotiorum and to verify the biocontrol potential of Trichoderma spp. microbi- olized lettuce seeds, growing in substrate infested with S. sclerotiorum . Trichoderma spp. isolates were obtained from areas with and without history of white mold or stored in water. Mycelial growth rate and sporu- lation of the Trichoderma spp. isolates and control of Trichoderma spp. versus S. sclerotiorum in the in vitro essays. For the in vivo essay, lettuce seeds were microbiolized with Trichoderma spp. and the substrate was infested with S. sclerotiorum . The native isolates of Trichoderma identified belong to T. koningiopsis and T. asperellum species. The CP isolates had higher mycelial growth rates when compared to the SP isolates and stored while the stored isolates showed better responses in confrontation. The application of Trichoderma spp. promoted higher seedlings quality compared to control, as well as good seedlings development in the presence of the pathogen.

The removal of the original vegetation and deployment of crops, combined with inadequate management practices, usually cause the deterioration of the physical and chemical quality of the soil. The aim of this study was to evaluate the changes in the physical and chemical attributes of a Typic Quartzipsamment from different land use systems and soil management. Four agroecosystems were selected: eucalyptus forest, extensive grazing, crop-livestock integration and integrated crop-livestock-forest, and an ecosystem preserved vegetation of native cerrado, located on Fazenda Modelo II in Ribas do Rio Pardo, MS. Soil samples were col-lected at depths of 0-5, 5-10 and 10-20 cm in a completely randomized design, with six plots of 150 m2 on each system. The integrated crop-livestock and integrated crop-livestock-forest provided the biggest contribution in the improvement of soil fertility. There was an antagonistic relationship between physical and chemical soil as sustainability evaluation, and chemical attributes had to be more affected than physical.

The treated domestic wastewater use in agricultural production has increased in research pro-jects, because providing nutritional qualities available to the plants. However, studying the challenges that this water source can cause to the this irrigation system located, is an important result to the sustainability of pro-duction. The current study has to evaluate the hydraulic performance of emitters under time exposure of drip-pers in the domestic sewage. With the performance evaluation system hydraulic prepared on a bench was car-ried out two experiments in a completely randomized design (CRD). In the first experiment, the treatments were three pressures (kPa) supplied to the system and in the second the treatments were made by operating time in interval of 60 h (composing seven intervals) with 28 drippers as repetitions. The system performance was evaluated for each treatment by the coefficient of distribution uniformity (CUD) and Christiansen's uni-formity coefficient (CUC). There was no statistical significance was set at a 5% for the different pressures, but there will be 1% for different times. When the CUD and CUC fell to 60 and 70 %, respectively, was cleaned with sodium hypochlorite. The system showed uniformity acceptable in the first 120 hours of operation with no need for cleaning. According to the coefficients evaluated this cleaning must occur before the 180 h, however, suggests that to maintain good uniformity this procedure should be done every 60 h.

The objective of this research was to evaluate the profitability of the production of rocket ferti-lized in different amounts of roostertree biomass and times of incorporation of this green manure into the soil, in two cultivation seasons (spring-summer and autumn), in Serra Talhada, Pernambuco state, Brazil. The exper-imental design was a randomized block with the treatments arranged in a factorial 4 x 4, with three replications, with the first factor consisting of amounts of roostertree biomass (5.4, 8.8, 12.2 and 15.6 t ha-1 on a dry basis), and the second factor by the incorporation times into the soil (0, 10, 20 and 30 days before sowing of the rock-et). Beyond the green mass yield and production costs, were determined the following economic indicators: gross income, net income, rate of return and profit margin. The optimal agronomic performance of the rocket was obtained into monetary terms. Spending on hand labor accounted for 69% of protuction costs. Due to the increase in the daily price of rural workers, the costs of preparation of the green manure were higher in autumn. The cultivation of the rocket under fertilization with roostertree was feasible from the economic perspective, regardless the amount of green manure, time of incorporation into the soil and cultivation season. The amount of 12.2 t ha-1 of roostertree biomass promoted greater profitability for the production of rocket. The incorpora-tion of green manure at 20 days before planting the crop was considered ideal to the economic viability of the activity. The net income of the rocket was higher in the autumn season.

Dehydration is an important alternative to making the most of the use the surplus of production and take advantage of the seasonality of tropical fruits. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the physicochemical composition of the yellow mombin pulp ( Spondia mombin L.) powder, obtained by spray drying, and evaluate its sensory acceptance in the form of reconstituted juice. The physicochemical analyzes of the yellow mombin powder were: pH, soluble solids, titratable acidity, ascorbic acid and moisture, with all results in accordance with the current legislation. The addition of maltodextrin in the process reduced the sensory analysis values (color, appearance, and taste). The tested formulations, (powders with 25 and 27.05% maltodextrin) preserved, and even favored the aroma. These formulations had the following values (7.66 and 7.68) higher than the val- ues found for integral juice (6.60).

The aim of this study was to report for the first time Pratylenchus brachyurus population asso- ciated to mango cv. Tommy Atkins seedling roots, on naturally infested soil, on Assú municipality, Rio Grande do Norte State. The population of nematode was characterized based on a morphometric study that was done using 20 females collected from the roots. The morphometric data were compared to other data published by different authors in studies concerning to reporters of this species of root - lesion nematode, and it was possible to identify the population as P. brachyurus.

The aim of this paper was to evaluate the cutting frequency and levels of the manure on cactus for-age productivity. The research was conducted at Pendencia Station – The State Agribusiness Reaserch Compa-ny of Paraíba, Soledade – PB –Brazil, from August 2008 to August 2010. It was utilized a factorial arrenge-ment 4x5, 4 crop managements (M1= cactus forage harvested at 12 months after establishment; M2= cactus forage harvested at 12 months after the first regrowth; M3= harvested of the accumulated production in 24 months and M4= sum of the first production and regrowth) and five levels of goat manure: 0; 5; 10; 15 e 20 Mg ha-1. It was evaluated the fresh matter production (FMP) and dry matter production (DMP), water accumula-tion, rainfall use efficiency (RUE) and percentage of the water accumulation in the plant. The largest level of organic fertilizer promoted an increase in FMP of 275, 171, 184, 203% and DMP: 305, 175, 223, 218%, re-spectively, when comparing the highest level of fertilizer with the unfertilized treatment, and an increase in water accumulation 115.60, 102.93, 166.95, 218.53 kg of water ha-1 when comparing the highest level with the unfertilized treatment. The organic fertilization in M1, M2, M3 and M4 managements, despite of the levels, promoted a linear increase in the RUE. Fertilization increases the cactus forage productivity, and its rainfall use efficiency. The annual cut can be employed as a practice in the management of cactus forage.

The use of cashew apple bagasse for bioethanol production aimed at taking advantage of a re-gional culture that has about 85% of waste. Due to the complex structure of the material, it is necessary to sub-mit it to physical pretreatments and/or chemicals such as acid prehydrolysis, alkali, steam explosion, CO2 ex-plosion, hot water treatment, pretreatment with microwave, among others, before hydrolysis process for ethanol production. The aim of this paper was to study the prehydrolysis and acid hydrolysis in the cashew bagasse peduncle (Anarcadium occidentale L.), and the removal of toxic compounds from the hydrolyzate liquor using the residual lignin as adsorbent and alcoholic fermentation of liquors for the production of the second genera-tion bioethanol. The cashew bagasse, based on its chemical characterization and physical chemistry, presented itself as a promising source in order to produce bioethanol. The prehydrolysis, is effective in the removal of hemicelluloses mainly in the extraction of arabinose, the temperature being the major variable influencing the process. For the acid hydrolysis done with the following hydrolysis conditions: temperature at 200 °C, acid concentration equal to 6% and ratio of 1:6 has presented the combination of the highest concentration of sugars with a minimum concentration of toxic compounds. During the study of the alcoholic fermentation of liquors with hydrolyzed yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, presented yield and efficiency of production of ethanol from cellulosic pulp of processing stalk cashew maximum dry were respectively 0.445 g ethanol/g of pulp and 87.1% hydrolyzed liquor with the addition of cashew apple juice.

The culture of coffee is quite important on the national scene and in the country's economy. Though, the crop response to salt stress is not well known. The objective of this paper was to evaluate compar-atively the initial growth of seedlings of two Conilon coffee cultivars under different conditions of soil salinity, and low water availability in the soil. The experiment followed a randomized block design in factorial arrange-ment with two Conilon cultivars (clones 120 and 14), two levels of water in the soil (50% and 70% of available soil water) and four levels of soil salinity (0; 2.0; 4.0 and 6.0 dS m-1). The physiological characteristics of growth: leaf area (Area F), stem height (Height. C), Stem diameter (Dia. C), reproductive branches numbers, shoot biomass and root were evaluated. Among the growth variables, leaf area and leaf dry mass and root are the best indicators of the presence of saline-hydric stress. The cultivar clone 120 is moderately tolerant of soil salinity, with less reduction in leaf area and leaf dry mass when subjected to salt stress.