The tomato is one of the most economically, socially and nutritionally important vegetables, presenting high added value. The culture allows high profit for the producers, but it is a high risk activity due to, specially, the sensibility of some varieties to climate conditions as well as multiple plagues and diseases that attack the culture. Therefore, the search for new hybrids with more tolerance to biotic and abiotic factors is extremely important to attend to the demand of the culture’s productive chain. The objective of this work was to demonstrate the importance of multivariate and univariate techniques in evaluating the level of similarity among hybrids of the tomato plant of the salad group with the purpose of diagnosing possible groups in relation to the variables analyzed. A total of 23 hybrids of tomato from the salad group were evaluated; of those, 9 were commercial hybrids and 14 were experimental hybrids. Throughout the conduction of the experiment, the productive characters of the culture were evaluated as well as the characteristics of the fruits and the agronomic characters of the plant. For the productive characters and the characteristics of the fruits, the multiple factor analysis was performed, and the averages were compared by the Scott-Knott test. For the agronomic characters of the plant, the exploratory data analysis was used with the correspondence analysis. The commercial hybrids studied present a high degree of similarity among them, with more than 77% of the materials with strong or high similarity with the other materials. Meanwhile, for the experimental hybrids, this result is seen in only 42.86% of the materials. The experimental hybrids 3124, 3139, and 3126 present higher divergence when compared to the other materials studied. They are, therefore, recommended to increase the genetic base of the tomato plant’s breeding program.

Ginger has a large number of essential oils, zingiberene is the major substance found in it, which may be linked to the insecticidal activity of the plant. Therefore, it can be a viable alternative to replace the use of pesticides for pest control. The objective of this work was to evaluate the use of this ginger-based extract in hydroponic lettuce as an alternative to thrips control. The experiment was carried out in a randomized block design, with five treatments and four replications. The treatments used were the concentrations of 0 %, 20 %, 40 %, 60 %, and 80 % weight/volume of aqueous extract. After 45 days of sowing, the ginger plant extract was applied to the lettuce plants every seven days. A population of thrips was monitored using adhesive traps attached above each experimental plot once a week until harvest. In addition, fresh mass weight, shoot height, and incidence of direct damage to the crop were evaluated. Regarding thrips monitoring, no differences wereobserved indicating the uniformity of the population level among the lettuce parcels. For the evaluation of weight and fresh mass, no differences were observed regarding the treatments. However, from the concentration of 60 %, it was observed the lowest averages of plants with direct damage, showing that the higher the concentration of the solution the lesser insect feeding. Accordingly, the use of ginger plant extract in hydroponic lettuce becomes a promising alternative for reducing thrips feeding on lettuce.

Os arranjos produtivos de beterraba (Beta vulgaris L.) cultivada sob sistema de irrigação negligenciam técnicas que quantificam a real necessidade hídrica da cultura. Assim, o objetivo do trabalho foi investigar se lâminas de irrigação interferem no diâmetro e na produtividade de beterraba. O experimento foi conduzido no Instituto Federal de Minas Gerais (MG), Campus Bambuí, MG, de setembro a dezembro de 2016, com a cultivar EWTT - SK. Os tratamentos consistiram em cinco manejo de irrigação, com aplicação de lâminas de água correspondentes aos percentuais da evapotranspiração da cultura de 80%, 90%, 100%, 110% e 120%, fornecidas manualmente toda vez que o solo atingisse 80% da sua disponibilidade real. O delineamento experimental foi em blocos casualizados, com quatro repetições. A semeadura foi feita em bandejas de isopor e as mudas transplantadas no solo aos 34 dias. A colheita foi realizada 105 dias após a semeadura. Avaliou-se o diâmetro (mm) e a produtividade (t ha-1) de beterraba. À partir dos resultados obtidos, observou-se que houve diferença significativa para ambas avaliações, sendo que o tratamento com lâmina de 120% da evapotranspiração da cultura obteve melhor resultado nas duas avaliações, comparado aos outros tratamentos. Desta forma, conclui-se que o aumento da lâmina de irrigação apresenta efeito direto no diâmetro e na produtividade da beterraba, sendo que a lâmina de 120% da ETc apresenta os melhores resultados. O emprego de lâminas menores promovem redução nestas características analisadas, comprometendo, assim, a produção da cultura. Os resultados reforçam a importância da irrigação e do seu manejo para a produção da cultura.