Manoel Ferreira de Souza

Production and quality of tomato fruits under organic management

Information about the production and quality of tomato cultivars under organic management and the conditions of climate and soil from the north region of Minas Gerais State, Brasil, are scarce. Thus, this research was carried out to evaluate the production and quality of tomato cultivars under organic management, in this region. The treatments consisted of four open pollination tomato cultivars (Chadwick Cherry, Pitanga vermelha, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz Kada) and five hybrid cultivars (Marguerita, Nicolas, Ellen, Magestade and Dominador). The experimental design was of randomized blocks with three replications. The experiment was carried out using organic fertilization in the initial preparation of the area, compost and rock phosphate and sprays with Bordeaux mixture, neem oil and fertilizer. The marketable yield varied from 12.3 t ha -1 to 23.9 t ha -1 . The hybrid Marguerita presented higher marketable production (23.9 t ha -1 ). The cultivars Chadwick Cherry and Pitanga Vermelha reached similar production as most cultivars and larger proportions of marketable and giant fruits, and therefore, better market quality. All the cultivars presented low potassium and manganese levels in foliar tissue suggesting an evaluation after various organic manuring cycles and better nutrition conditions are necessary to permit the comparison of the performance of cultivars in this system.

Produção de fitomassa e teor de óleo essencial de folhas de alecrim-pimenta (Lippia sidoides Cham.) em diferentes espaçamentos de plantio

Native to Northeastern Brazil, pepper-rosmarin (Lippia sidoides Cham.) is a shrubby medicinal plant with aromatic leaves and essential oil rich in thymol and carvacrol. These components have great importance to the species since they present scientifically proven pharmacological activities. Thus, the study of cultivation conditions for this species is essential to obtain higher productivity. Spacing between plants is one of the most important factors related to cultivation, since crop productivity and yield are affected by plant density. Based on the need of optimizing pepper-rosmarin cultivation techniques, this work aimed to evaluate the phytomass production and the essential oil yield in four planting spacings. The experiment was carried out under field conditions in the Agricultural Sciences Institute, Federal University of Minas Gerais (ICA/UFMG), Montes Claros Municipality, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Experimental design was in randomized blocks, with four treatments and five replicates. Treatments consisted of the planting spacings 1.0 x 0.5 m; 1.0 x 1.0 m; 1.5 x 1.0 m; and double rows (1.0 x 0.8 x 0.5 m), with 1.0m between double rows, 0.8m between single rows and 0.5m between plants in the row. After 150 days of planting in the field, leaf fresh and dry phytomass production and essential oil yield were evaluated. The spacing 1.0 x 0.5 m led to higher phytomass production and essential oil yield, being therefore the most recommended for pepper-rosmarin cultivation.