PROTECTED ENVIRONMENTS AND SUBSTRATES FOR ACHACHAIRU SEEDLINGS

The Achachairu (Garcinia humilis) is a Bolivian exotic fruit that has been produced and commercialized a few years in Brazil. Information about the production of high quality seedlings is essential for the implementation and the renewal of orchards. The objective was to evaluate protected environments and substrates for Achachairu seedlings. Two protected environments were evaluated, one covered with aluminized thermal reflector screen of 50% of shading and the other with Sombrite (R) of 50% of shading. Inside the protected environments were tested substrates derived from combinations of various proportions of cattle manure (CM), ravine soil (RS), medium vermiculite (MV), super fine vermiculite (FV) and sand (S). For each protected environment was adopted a completely randomized design with 5 replications of 5 seedlings. Protected environments were compared by analysis of groups of experiments. All substrates studied formed high quality seedlings for the implementation of Garcinia orchards, with low rates of aerial and root phytomasses, low rates between height and stem diameter, providing higher Dickson quality index. The Aluminet (R) promoted the best seedlings with larger shoot, root and total dry mass.