Crescimento e produção de forragem de milho doce (Zea mays L.) sob estresse hídrico.

Abstract

The cultivation of economically important species for forage production in semiarid region, such as sweet com, may be an alternative to animal feed production system, however, one should know the limitation of production and growth due to water deficit . Thus, the objective was to study the growth and formation of biomass for forage production of sweet com under water stress in the experimental área of Pombas Campus, Federal University of Campina Grande, and the experimental unit consisted of eight planta. In a randomized block experimental design with four replications, we studied ave irrigation. evapotranspiration determined from the culture of sweet com (40, 60, 80, 100 and 120% ETc). The evaluations were defined by the growth, formation of biomass and forage production, and the data submitted to analysis of variance by F test (p <0.05) and polynomial regression analysis. The reduction applied on the blade did not affect the growth in number of leaves and plant height, but reduced the growth in stem diameter and leaf área, survival, sweet com under stress reduced the área of sweatingl The increase in water availability up to 120% of ETc promoted the increased production of fresh weight of shootl the highest concentration of dry matter was in the stem. the stem dry weight was the most sensitive to reduced water availability, water availability has reduced the amount of matter dry plant. Most forage production was achieved at leveis above 1 00% of ETc.