FERNANDES, Lavínia Costa Matias.
Résumé:
Opuntia stricta Haw. commonly known as the Mexican elephant ear palm, it is commonly
used as a forage species in the Brazilian Northeast and, coming from Mexico, it has excellent
adaptability to the climatic conditions of the northeastern semi-arid region due to its
resistance to water deficit, as well as the insect pest cochineal. crimson that decimated an
extensive area of palm plantations in the Semiarid region. Taking into account the importance
of O. stricta, the present research aims to evaluate and investigate its performance, based on
the residual cladode cut, observing the emission of new cladodes. The research was conducted
in an experimental area of the Vegetation House at the Federal University of Campina Grande
Campus Cuité. The research period is a time frame from August 2, 2023 to March 3, 2024.
The experimental design is in complete randomized blocks, with the treatments known as T1 -
Total section of cladodes being adopted, leaving only the matrix cladode ; T2 – Section up to
secondary cladodes; T3 – Section leaving the matrix cladode and residual cut of 50% in the
others; T4 – Section leaving the matrix cladode and residual cut of 1/3 of the others. The
plants were watered five days a week with 2 L of water per plant. Data collection was carried
out every 30 days, totaling seven collections during the experiment. The results were
subjected to analysis of variance and the means compared using the Tukey test, α ≤ 0.05,
using the Sisvar computer application (2014). The results obtained during the experiment are
promising in relation to the residual cutting of cladodes, considering that T4 stood out, with
the highest number of emission of new cladodes, while in T1 there was a loss of some new
cladodes, and finally, treatments T2 and T3 had similar statistical results. In view of the
above, the positive influence of the residual cladode cut is notable, taking into account that the
emission of new cladodes from this cut not only did not differ from the others, but also proved
to be more promising, as assessed in T4.