Fitorreguladores e fracionamento de cladódios na produção de mudas de palma forrageira

Abstract

The propagation via cladode fractionation and incorporation of phytoregulators can be a viable and efficient technique to produce large-scale young plants of forage palm associated to lower costs. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of phytoregulators and cladode fractionation for young plant production of forage palm under greenhouse conditions. Three experiments (I, II and III) were performed in a greenhouse, where experiments I and II consisted of palm young plants of Miúda genotype, formed from 5x3 cm fragmented cladodes, with some of them submitted to solutions containing BAP and Kinetin combined with NAA and additional treatment without plant growth regulators. The evaluated variables were: length, width and thickness of the evaluated sprout at 45, 60, 75 and 90 days after planting (DAP). In experiment III, different size fractions of four forage palm genotypes were tested: Gigante, Orelha de elefante, IPA Sertânia and Miúda. The young plants were sized at 5x3, 4x2 and 2x2 cm and the evaluated variables were, respectively: presence of sprout evaluated in percentage (%) at 45, 60 and 75 DAP and length, width and thickness of the sprout, evaluated at 90 DAP. No influence of phytoregulators on the characteristics evaluated in experiments I and II was observed. Significant differences were found for the length, width and thickness of the sprouts among the treatments in the third experiment. Therefore, it is not recommended to use phytoregulators in the production of forage palm young plants at the used dosages and for Gigante, Orelha de elefante and Miúda genotypes it is recommended the cladodes fractioning at 5x3 cm, while for IPA Sertânia the fractioning recommended is 4x2 cm.