Morphometric and biomass accumulation in small forage cactus grow under nitrogen fertilization

Abstract

The objective was to evaluate morphological characteristics and forage production in cactus pear cv. Miúda subjected to nitrogen levels and pointing morphological characteristics that can be used as predictors of fresh weight of cladodes. The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with four treatments (no fertilization, 100; 200 and 300kg/ha of nitrogen) and four replications. No significant differences (P>0.10) for the morphogenesis and length of cladodes. Nitrogen fertilization exerted a linear effect for features width, thickness, volume and weight of cladodes and positive linear effect for number of cladodes. There was a positive linear correlation between fresh weight and morphological characteristics of cladodes. The use of nitrogen does not interfere with morphogenesis and biomass production of cactus pear. The volume of cladodes can be used as a predictive variable for the fresh weight of cladodes.