Espaçamentosentre plantas e cama-de frango na produção de Hibiscus sabdariffa L.

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of five different row spacings (distance between plants within the row) and the use or non-use of chicken litter on the grown, biomass production and the levels of phenols, flavonoids and antioxidant activity of Roselle. The experiment was carried out at the Medicinal Plant Garden - HPM in the Federal University of Grande Dourados - UFGD, Dourados-MS, from September 2006 to March 2007. Roselle plants were evaluated under five different distances between plants within the row (0.30; 0.35; 0.40; 0.45 and 0.50 m) and in soil with and without chicken litter cover (10 t ha -1 ). The treatments were arranged in a 5 x 2 factorial scheme, in a randomized block design, with four repetitions. The maximum height of the plant (282.92 cm) was reached to 200 days after transplant -DAT under 0.35 m between plants without the use of chicken litter. Leaf area was affected by the interaction between plant spacing and use of chicken litter and increased linearly with the spacing between plants, 26,359 cm 2 plant -1 without chicken litterand 32,009 cm 2 plant -1 with chicken litter. The fresh and dr y mass, the number, length and diameter of calyces were not influenced significantly by the treatments, with an average of 27,460 kg ha -1 ;3,379 kg ha -1 ;5.4 million ha -1 ;38.4 mm and 20.4 mm,respectively. The levels of phenols and flavonoids weren´t influenced by treatment, but those of phenols (0.814 mg mL -1 ) were higher in leaves than in calyces. To achieve higher antioxidant activity in leaves, should be used Roseli plants grown under spacing of 0.30 m within the row. The highest antioxidant activity of calyces was obtained in plants grown under the chicken litter and a spacing of0.39 m within the row.