Palma forrageira ‘gigante’ em arranjo mecanizável, diferentes densidades e tipos de cortes na colheita

Abstract

The forage cactus (Opuntia fícus-indica (L.) Mill), cv. Giant belongs to the cactaceae family, and has important characteristics for the semiarid climate region. Forage cactus is a perennial crop and the management adopted during the productive cycle can influence the productive response of plants. The objective of this work was to evaluate the productivity and morphometric characteristics of the forage cactus submitted to different plant densities and cut types during two harvest cycles. The experiment was installed at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Bahia, Campus Guanambi, in a dystrophic Yellow Red Latosol. The experiment was a randomized block design (RBD) in a split-split-plot (6 x 3 x 2). The plot consisted of six densities: 22,857; 34,286; 51,428; 62,857; 80,000 and 95,000 plants ha-1 ; the split-plot was constituted by three types of cuts: preserving three, two and one primary cladodes per plant; and the split-split-plot was constituted by two harvest cycles: corresponding to the year 2017 and 2018. In total, there were 36 treatments, with three replications, totaling 108 experimental units. The data were submitted to analysis of variance to verify the significance and, when found, these were compared by Tukey test (P <0.05) for cut types and harvest cycle, and regression analysis for plant densities. There was a significant interaction between density and cut type, also for density and harvest year. It observed a significant difference for cut types and year of harvest. The increase in planting density increases the cladode area index and decreases the total cladode area and the cladode number by plants. Cutting that preserves three primary cladodes per plant at harvest provides greater productivity. Years with higher rainfall provide higher cladode number, total cladode area, plant height and cladode area index.