José Tarciso Alves Costa

Crescimento e desenvolvimento de clones de cajazeira cultivados na chapada do Apodi, Ceará

The experiment was established, at the Apodi Plateau; in Limoeiro do Norte County, State of Ceara (Brazil). A randomized block design was used with a factorial 5x2 (5 scions on 2 rootstocks), with 4 replicates and 4 plants per plot. Scions stem from superior plants collected in the counties of Caucaia (Capuan locality), Pacajus (Curimata locality), Maranguape (Gereau e Ladeira Grande localities) and Fortaleza (Lagoa Redonda locality). Rootstocks were prepared from seeds of S. mombin L. and S. tuberosa Arruda. All scions and rootstocks were collected in Ceara State. The parameters assessed were the vegetative growth and fruit setting. Clones Gereau and Lagoa Redonda were the most vigorous, higher (3.9 m) and with bigger stem girth (57 cm). Ladeira Grande showed the poorest peformance in hight (2.2 m) and stem girth (49 cm) and, being statistically different from the others. As far as the root-stocks are concerned those from S. mombim were superior to S. tuberosa. The stem girth ratio was less than 1.0 for S. mombin rootstocks and higher than 1.0 for S. tuberosa rootstocks. The number of fruits per bunch of studied clones presented values of raged from 8 to 76. Some plants of Lagoa Redonda and Gereau clones on S. tuberosa yielded from 100 to 300 bunches. Final results confirmed that scions of S. mombin grafted on rootstocks of S. mombin and S. tuberosa produced combinations with the following characterists: vigorous clones with distinct phenotypic and morphological features such as low hight, uniform canopies and standardized main stem growth; S. mombin rootstocks allowed the formation of plants with more vigorous stems compared with rootstocks of S. tuberosa; the stem girth, graft and rootstock ratios were higher for combinations on S. tuberosa, but without indications of grafting incompatibility; the rootstock of S. tuberosa increase plant hight, productive and precocious of clones Gereau e Lagoa Redonda, and clone Ladeira Grande showed the lowest hight.

Comportamento vegetativo e reprodutivo de clones de cajazeira cultivados na Chapada do Apodi, Ceará

The mombin-tree orchard was planted in February 2000 on the Chapada do Apodi in Limoeiro do Norte, Ceara, with the aim of evaluating the effects of different combinations of rootstock and grafts on the vegetative growth, the number of productive plants and the fruit yield of mombin clones. The trial was set up in a randomized block design, a factorial of 5x2, with four replications and four plants per plot. Scions (crowns) were obtained from adult productive plants in Capuan, Caucaia, Ceara; in Curimata, Pacajus, Ceara; in Gereau and Ladeira Grande, Maranguape, Ceara and in Lagoa Redonda, Fortaleza,Ceara and the rootstock taken from ungrafted mombin and hog-plum. The scion clones from Gereau, grafted onto hog plum, and from Round Pond onto mombin, had the greatest size (570 cm) and average annual rates of growth, while those from Ladeira Grande had the smallest size in all the evaluations, reaching an eventual height of 362 cm. The larger clones also had the greatest stem girth. The Capuan, Curimata and Gereau clones were the most tardy, with the first plants entering the reproductive phase only at 62 months. The scion clone, Lagoa Redonda was the most productive when combined with either hog-plum or mombin. Neither the rootstock nor grafting altered the growth pattern of the clones, resulting in vigorous plants with no signs of incompatibility. The hog-plum rootstock increased precocity, number of fruits per bunch and production of mombin scion clones. The Lagoa Redonda scion was the most productive, especially when grafted onto hog plum.