Viabilidade de produção da alface americana no município de Pentecoste, CE.

Abstract

Although it is recognized as a typical culture of bland climate, the American lettuce has genetically improved cultivars with temperature tolerance of semiarid regions, allowing cultivation throughout the year. The lettuce is a vegetable much consumed worldwide, presenting economic importance to Brazil. It’s considered excellent source of vitamins, fiber and minerals. This work aimed to evaluate the viability of American lettuce production through of different spacing, in the climate conditions of the Pentecoste municipal, CE. For this, conduced to test in “Vale do Curú” farm, located in Pentecoste, CE, belongs to Center of Agricultural Science of Federal University of Ceará. The work was development between July and October 2012. Was used the design completely randomized, in factorial squeme 3x2x3: three cultivars (Lucy Brown, Amelia, Rafaela), two spacing (0.25 x 0.25 m and 0.30 x 0.30 m) and three different harvest times (35, 42 and 49 days after transplanting of seedlings), with four replications. It was found that Lucy Brown cultivar in each harvest time, in other words, days after transplanting (DAT), had the highest fresh weight, to 42 DAT (417 g.plant-1) and 49 DAT (631 g.plant-1) relative to 35 DAT (221 g.plant-1) differed. The formation of compact head exceeded to 49 DAT for three cultivars evaluated, Lucy Brown (grade 4), Amelia (grade 4) and Rafaela (grade 5), for this characteristic, represents lettuce with better development. Concludes that is viable to produce American lettuce in the climate conditions of the Pentecoste municipal, CE, being the Lucy Brown cultivar in the spacing 0.30 x 0.30 m, with harvest to 49 days.