FREITAS, L. M.; http://lattes.cnpq.br/7035702291795492; FREITAS, Letícia Medeiros de.
Abstract:
Water scarcity makes it difficult to produce forage crops for animal feed in the
Northeast region of Brazil. As a result, many producers become hostages to the
trade in concentrated feed, which increases production costs. Therefore, the
production of Calotropis procera (Ait) can be considered for use as a low-cost
animal feed alternative. Therefore, the work aims to produce Silk Flowers in the
municipality of Pombal-PB, with and without organic fertilization and under two
spacings. The seeds were extracted by collecting ripe fruits that were beginning to
open in the natural process of dispersal. The treatments consist of two types of
fertilization (cattle manure and no fertilization) and two types of spacing (1.0 m
between plants x 1.0 m between rows and 1.0 m between plants x 0.5 m between
rows). After preparing the area, sowing was carried out and irrigation occurred
through a drip system. During the conduction, the following evaluations were
carried out: Plant length, Number of leaves per plant, Stem diameter, Fresh
weight, Dry weight and Bromatological analysis. The experimental design used will
be randomized blocks, in a 2x2 factorial scheme (fertilization x spacing) with six
replications and the data will be subjected to analysis using the Sisvar software. In
this way, it was possible to observe that there was an interaction between the
sources of spacing variation and the use or not of manure in fertilizing plants, both
in growth and development and in bromatological variables. The development of
silk flower plants was more favorable when cultivated in a spacing with greater
distance between rows (1.0 x 1.5 m) and the use of cattle manure did not present
much advantage in relation to the other treatments, demonstrating that the silk
flower can develop satisfactorily even without fertilization.
