AVALIAÇÃO DA PRODUÇÃO DE PALMA ORELHA DE ELEFANTE MEXICANA Opuntia stricta SUBMETIDA A DIFERENTES NÍVEIS DE PODA NO SEMIÁRIDO PARAIBANO

Abstract

Forage palm, currently widespread throughout the world, has its origin in Mexico and its arrival in Brazil occurred in the 19th century. The present work had as objective to evaluate the influence of different pruning in the vegetative development of the forage palm Elephant Ear of Mexican variety Opuntia stricta in the semiarid of the State of Paraíba. The work was carried in the site Pedra da Inveja, rural area of the municipality of Barra de São Miguel-PB. The experimental area was installed in a field of palm elephant ear Mexicana variety with three and a half years of planting and composed of four plots, each with six blocks and four replicates and composed of the following treatments: T1 = Witness, T2 = Cutting in the secondary racket, T3 = Cut in the primary racket, T4 = Cut in the matrix racket. The variables evaluated were: height of the plant with the use of tape measure; total number of rackets sprouted per count; Number of rackets sprouted per order and marking with atomic brush; length of the rackets sprouted using tape measure. The data were submitted to statistical analysis using Anova and Tukey Test at 5% probability. After the study carried out, the importance of racket handling was evident, emphasizing the effects of months and orders of rackets, mainly in relation to the production of green mass per hectare.