Cultivo do cumaru (Amburana cearensis) em diversos sistemas de produção no semiárido.

Abstract

The cumaru, is a native plant of the brazilian semiarid, with multiples uses: produces an excellent wood, has an active principle used on the food industries, perfumes and drugs and it is also forage and a melifera plant. Due to its importance, research is needed to evaluate its performance as an integrant of the agroforest systems on the ecological region Caatinga, a potential sustained system. It is necessary to know the response of the cumaru to water, fertilization and to the nature of soil surface, insumes originated and cycled on the proper agrosystem, its performance in the agroforest system and even the possibility of cultivation directly on seed beds. To accomplish this, three experiments were conducted. The first one with seedlings on a greenhouse as affected by the irrigation, organic fertilization (manure) and mulching. The second one to study the performance of cumaru seedlings on a agroforeet system, for different organic matter levels and mulching and the third one to study the effect of irrigation and plant spacement on plants cultivated on seed beds. On the first experiment it was observed a benefical effect of the manure application to the soil on soil quality, water consumption and evapotranspiration with a negative effect on the leave number and tubercular diameter. The increase of the irrigation water decreased the soil water Electrical Conductivity and increased the diameter of the tuberculo and the evapotranspiration. On the second experiment, the cumaru integrating an agroforest system showed to be economically viable, well adapted to low organic matter content of the soil and indifferent to the nature of soil surface (mulching). On the third it was observed that water influenced only the leaves number and the plant spacement only the total and root fresh phytomass. Considering the absence of a method to determine de foliar area of the Amburana cearensis, it was developed a model based on the length and wideness of the plant.