Avaliação de clones de palma forrageira (Opuntia e Nopalea) sob irrigação e salinidade

Abstract

The cactus pear is an important forage for arid and semiarid regions of northeastern Brazil, because it is mainly used as fodder reserves in times of drought, representing a major support forage for ruminants. Two experiments were carried out from 2009 to 2012, aiming to assess the irrigation frequency and water salinity levels on growth and chemical composition of the small cactus pear and evaluate twenty clones of cactus pear subjected to salt stress. In the first experiment it was used Miúda cactus pear under four levels of salinity (0.3 = control, 0.5 = low, 1.5 = medium and 3.6 dS m-1 = high salinity), associated with the four irrigation frequencies (7, 14, 21 and 28 days) and two soil textures (loam sand and sandy loam) in a randomized block design in a factorial arrangement with four replications. In the second experiment 20 genotypes of cactus pear were used, and water with salinity of 3.6 dS m-1 was applied at 14 day intervals. The experimental design was a randomized blocks with six replications, and the initial weight of the cladodes was the blocking criteria. The sandy loam soil gave smaller number of cladodes and lower phosphorus content. The water with salinity of 3.6 dS m-1 and irrigation frequency of 7 days provided greater electrical conductivity of the soil (48.67 dS m-1) and plants with higher percentage of damages and low productivity, thus indicating low tolerance of this species to salt stress. The clone Liso Forrageiro was harvested at 419 days after planting, thus indicating its better tolerance to salinity. The highest productivicty were achieved by the clones Orelha de Elefante Africana, IPA Clone 20 and Orelha de Elefante Mexicana with 50,8; 50,6 e 51,5 g plant-1, respectively. The Smaller root lengths were observed the Chile Frut and Copena-V1 clones with 2.97 and 3.00 cm, respectively, showing also less tolerance to salt stress. The cactus pear clones vary in adaptation to salinity conditions, and the productive performance of the cactus pear cv. Miúda is influenced by the soil salinity and the amount of irrigation.