The current study aimed to evaluate the influence of six ripening stages on physicochemical characteristics of acerola fruits from cultivar Olivier. The fruits were obtained at Experimental Orchard of the Sao Paulo State University. The experimental design was completely randomized, with six ripening staged and four replications. The physicochemical characteristics evaluated were pH, soluble solids, titratable acidity, ratio, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), reducing sugars, total sugars, sucrose and colour. There was a decrease in the levels of ascorbic acid and total sugars at full ripeness. However, the levels of sucrose increased during ripening. With regards to the ascorbic acid, there were significant differences for all six maturity stages, by the time the peel colour was quite red, meaning its fully ripened stage, it presented 1675.67 mg/100 g of fresh weight, hence lower than fully green (3175.67 mg/100 g of fresh weight).

Vegetable production is an impactful activity, characterized by intensive land use, high input demand, and it requires strategic management adoption, especially in sustainable production systems, where the pillars of sustainability (environmental, social and economic) must be respected. In this sense, the objective of this work was to evaluate economic indicators of lettuce production using Caatinga spontaneous species (Calotropis procera: rooster tree) as fertilizer and cultivated in two seasons (spring and fall-winter) in the municipality of Serra Talhada, PE. The experimental design was in randomized blocks, arranged in a 4 x 4 factorial scheme, with three replications. The first factor was the biomass amounts of green manure (5.4, 8.8, 12.2 and 15.6 t ha^-1 on a dry basis); and the second was their incorporation times in the soil (0, 10, 20 and 30 days before lettuce transplanting). The green mass yield, production costs, rate of return, and net profit margin were determined. The amount 15.6 t ha^-1 of C. procera allowed higher profitability to the organic production of lettuce, and it is considered ideal to incorporate the green manure 11 (spring) and 15 (fall-winter) days before transplanting the vegetable. The spring crop promoted a superior economic return to the fall-winter planting, demonstrating economic viability even in the smallest amount of C. procera.

The use of mini-cuttings is an option for obtaining sweet potato propagules of excellent quality. The objective of this research was to evaluate the production and quality of sweet potato roots propagated by mini-cuttings in different types of trays and ages of seedlings. Six treatments, resulting from the factorial 2x3, were evaluated: two types of trays (162 and 200 cells, with 31 and 18 mL of substrate per cell, respectively) and three ages of seedlings (39, 46 and 53 days after placement of mini-cuttings in trays), in a randomized block design, with five replications. Seedlings characteristics, production and quality of roots were evaluated. Higher number and dry weight of leaves per seedling were observed in the tray with 162 cells than in trays with 200 cells. The younger seedlings (39 days) had a lower number of leaves, dry weight of leaves, stem, roots ant total (leaves + stem + roots) than seedlings of other ages. There was no difference in root production depending on the type of tray, regardless of the age of the seedlings. For the 162-cell tray, the age of the seedlings did not affect the production of roots. On the other hand, for the 200-cell tray, higher roots production was observed on seedlings 39 days age compared to seedlings with 53 days. No differences were observed among the roots of different treatments for titratable acidity, and levels of sucrose, reducing sugars ant total sugars. It is recommended to avoid old seedlings, that is, it is recommended to use seedlings with a maximum of 43 days after planting of mini-cuttings for trays with 200 cells, while for trays with 162 cells no difference in root production was observed with the different ages of the seedlings.

The tomato fruit is rich in antioxidant compounds and has great nutritional and economic importance, annually promoting research on the nutritional and productive characteristics. The present study aimed to evaluate whether foliar application of commercial products based on growth regulators [auxin, cytokinin and gibberellin (Ax+CK+GA)], micronutrients [cobalt and molybdenum (Mi)] and mixtures of macro and micronutrients [nitrogen, boron, copper, molybdenum and zinc (Ma+Mi)], isolated and in combination, increase productivity and improve the post-harvest quality of tomato fruits (Predador F1). The experiment design used randomized blocks, with seven treatments and four repetitions, which were (T1) control; (T2) Ax+CK+GA; (T3) Ma+Mi; (T4) Mi; (T5) Ax+CK+GA + (Ma+Mi); (T6) Ax+CK+GA + Mi; and (T7) Ax+CK+GA + Mi + (Ma+Mi). The variables production, precocity, soluble solids content (SS), titratable acidity (TA), ratio (SS/TA), pH, total soluble sugars, ascorbic acid and weight loss were evaluated. The Ax+CK+GA application, isolated or in combination with Ma+Mi, promoted the precocity, and the use of isolated Ax+CK+GA and Mi improved the tomato plant productivity. The growth regulators, macro and micronutrients, isolated or in combination, increased the ascorbic acid content in the fruits.