A PALMATÓRIA DE ESPINHO Tacinga palmadora COMO PROPOSTA DE ROÇADO DE ESPINHO NO SEMIÁRIDO BRASILEIRO

Abstract

In the Paraíba semi-arid region a species that has been more strongly emphasized in episodes of severe drought and in the absence of species such as mandacaru, facheiro, xique-xique, and feijão bravo is the Tacinga palmadora a cactus known as quipá, or true quipá. It is an endemic cactus of the Caatinga that is found very frequently in the areas that are part of the São Francisco River watershad, with more than 250 populations distributed in caatinga areas of all states that are part of the northeastern region of Brazil. The experiment was carried out at the São Pedro ranch, in the Catolé of Boa Vista, a district of Campina Grande, Paraíba, in an area under intensive degradation. The experimental area consisted of four plots of 10m x 10m where raquettes per cladodes of cactus that were obtained in a neighboring area, at the spacing of 1,5 m x 0,50 m x 0,50 m making 200 plants per plot. During the conduction of the experiment the following variables were observed: survival; Number of shoots; Hierarchy of shoots; Length, width, perimeter and weight of shoots. Regarding the height of the plants, they ranged from 14,70 cm to 20,0 cm for a median value of 18,10 cm. In relation to the budding of raquettes per cladodes it was more intense in relation to the called primaries with variations of 1,70 to 2,00 rackets per cladode per plant with a median value of 1,81 per plant; primary cladodes obtained varied from 4,68 cm to 7,65 cm with a median value of 6,53 cm, the values of raquettes per primary cladodes width ranging from 2,22 cm to 3,00 cm with median value of 2,62 cm, finally the primary raquettes weights ranged from 3,63 g to 6,71 g with median values of 5.39 g. Cactus in the field showed significant survival values with low green mass production per area at 15 MAP, which does not eliminate its cultivation as an additive in the diversity of thorn fodder production along with other more productive crops.