Vicente de Paulo Campos Godinho

Deficiência de macronutrientes em estévia: sintomas visuais e efeitos no crescimento, composição química e produção de esteviosídeo

This experiment was carried out to describe visual symptoms of macronutrients defi- ciencies in Stevia rebaudiana, and the effects of these deficiencies on growth, chemical composition and stevioside production. The symptoms were: yellowing with -N; dark green leaves with -P; clorotic, mottled, and necrotic leaves, with -K; apical necrosis, with -Ca; leaves with clorosis and necrosis in inverted iVi shape, with -Mg, and small pale green leaves, with -S. N, K, and Mg deficiencies reduced the leaf growth, therefore the plant marketable part. Mg deficiency caused greater reduction on the development of the radicular system. N, P, K, and S deficiencies decreasead the shoot:root dry weigth ratio, while Mg deficiency increased it. All deficiencies decreased the absorption of macronutrients, except of Ca, which reduced only the absorption of Ca, and K, that did not affect the absorption of Mg and S. The chemical content of the last five fully expanded leaf pairs showed good correlation with the plant nutritional status. The deficiencies of K, Ca, and S decreased the concentration of stevioside while all deficiencies, except of P, decreased the stevioside content.

BRS 336: a high-quality fiber upland cotton cultivar for Brazilian savanna and semi-arid conditions

Cotton cultivar BRS 336 is a high-quality fiber upland cultivar and has wide adaptation to the Brazilian growing areas, with resistance to bacterial blight. BRS 336 exhibited fiber length higher than 32.0 mm in all field tests. Also, fiber strength exceeded all upland cotton currently grown in Brazil.