Caracterização de cultivares de citros para extração de óleos essenciais e substratos na produção visando ornamentação

Abstract

Citriculture is one of the most traditional sectors of Brazilian agribusiness and, among the promising possibilities for targeting fruits are the essential oil industry and the ornamental plant market. Thus, the objective of this work was to characterize citrus cultivars for extraction of essential oils and substrates in production for ornamentation purposes. To this end, the same was done in three chapters. The first aimed to characterize the fruits of the cultivars Caí, Rainha, Montenegrina and Pareci, in order to direct them to the production of essential oils. The work was conducted in the molecular microscopy laboratory of Embrapa Clima Temperado, Pelotas-RS. The experimental design was completely randomized, with treatments in a 4x7 bifactorial scheme (four cultivars and seven collection times (maturation)), with four replications and one fruit per repetition. Seven collections were carried out at the end of the 2019 harvest, measuring the length and equatorial diameter of the fruit and counting the secretory glands in the fruit peel. The cultivars Caí, Rainha, Montenegrina and Pareci showed a gradual decrease in the number of secretory glands visible during the fruit ripening process. The tested cultivars showed physical characteristics of the compatible fruits for the extraction of essential oils. In the second chapter, the objective was to evaluate substrates for the cultivation of Kunquat ‘Nagami’ in a 50 liter container for ornamentation. The experiment was conducted in a greenhouse located in Capão do Leão-RS. The experimental design was completely randomized, with the treatments being the substrates fertile peat, coconut fiber and mixture of fertile peat + coconut fiber (1: 1), with 20 repetitions per treatment and one plant per repetition. After 12 months, the following were evaluated: % survival, shoot length, number of branches, number of roots, length of the largest root, dry matter weight of the plant root. The content of soluble solids, pH and titratable acidity of the fruits were also evaluated 10 months after the installation of the experiment, in addition to the determination of pH, electrical conductivity and density of substrates, at the beginning and after 12 months. The physico-chemical characteristics show the ornamental potential of the cultivar, in addition to the possibility of fruit consumption, with better development in containers containing fertile peat and coconut fiber + fertile peat. In the third chapter the objective was to evaluate the phenology of Kunquat 'Nagami', being evaluated the same plants mentioned in the previous chapter and adopting the same experimental design. Four branches were marked per plant, with scores attributed to the phenological phases. Regardless of the treatment, the average cycle of the cultivar was approximately 10 months and the duration of each phenological phase shows its ornamental potential.