CRESCIMENTO DE BROTAÇÕES DO ABACAXIZEIRO ‘VITÓRIA’ PELO MÉTODO DE SECCIONAMENTO DE CAULE EM DIFERENTES AMBIENTES DE CULTIVO

Abstract

Pineapple, even presenting itself as a culture of great socioeconomic importance, has been facing difficulties in its diffusion, mainly due to the low quality of propagative material. Faced with this, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of the size of the stem sections on the initial growth of 'Vitória' pineapple propagules in different cultivation environments. The experiment was conducted in the plant fruit nursery of the Department of Phytotechny and Environmental Sciences, Agricultural Sciences Center of the Federal University of Paraiba (DFCA/CCA/UFPB), Areia. In the period of 05 May to 2 July 2015. The 'Vitória' pineapple stems were collected, approximately 30 days after the fruits were harvested, at Nova Quandú property, in the municipality of Itapororoca, micro-region of Guarabira-PB. After harvesting, the stems were taken to the nursery of the CCA/UFPB where they were sectioned. The sections of the stems after standardization were placed in a bed and bench in shade and greenhouse environment respectively, containing substrate composed of 60% organic compound and 40% charcoal rice husk. The experimental design was completely randomized in a 3 x 2 factorial scheme, with the following factors: section sizes (5, 10 and 15cm) and cultivation environments (greenhouse and shade 50% shading), with three replications, containing 10 sections per experimental plot. On the 30th day after planting (DAP), the sprouted sections were counted with periodicity of 7 days, during five weeks. At 65 days after planting, growth evaluations were performed: sprout length, stem diameter, rosette diameter, leaf number, leaf area, stem dry mass, shoot dry weight and total dry matter. The stem sections 10 and 15 cm presented higher numbers of sprouts with a maximum point of 26.4 and 32.2 sprouts, respectively at 65 DAP. For shoot length, the greenhouse environment provided sprouts with longer lengths (7.90 cm). In the total dry mass, the greenhouse environment and the stem segment length of 15 cm provided a higher mean value (1.96 g). The 15 cm section had the highest number of sprouts. The 15 cm section and the greenhouse environment provided higher sprout growth of 'Vitória' pineapple.