Orientador: Itamar Andrioli / Banca: Mara Cristina Pessoa da Cruz / Banca: Marcos Gervásio Pereira / Banca: Roberto Kazuhiko Zito / Banca: José Frederico Centurion / Resumo: O estabelecimento de culturas de cobertura para formação e manutenção dos resíduos culturais na superfície do solo, principalmente nas regiões de cerrado, tem encontrado alguns obstáculos, pois as condições climáticas nestas regiões favorecem a decomposição destes resíduos vegetais. A implantação do plantio direto nestas áreas tem crescido exponencialmente, porém tem sido utilizado como base em dados gerados em outras regiões do País, em outras condições climáticas. O presente estudo teve como objetivo principal estudar as plantas de cobertura mais utilizadas na região, avaliando o tempo de decomposição dos restos culturais, o acúmulo e liberação de nitrogênio por um período de até 320 dias, associando estes dados a produtividade das culturas. Também, fez-se o monitoramento da temperatura e umidade do solo, semanalmente, durante o período de janeiro a junho de 2000 nas profundidades de 0 a 5 e 5 a 10 cm. Após dois anos agrícolas de implantação do experimento, fez-se uma avaliação da influência destas coberturas em algumas propriedades físicas do solo da área. O delineamento experimental utilizado foi de blocos ao acaso, com parcelas subdivididas e quatro repetições. Nas parcelas principais, os tratamentos utilizados constaram de sete tipos de coberturas: milheto (Pennisetum americanum sin. tiphoydes), braquiária (Brachiaria brizantha), sorgo forrageiro (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench), guandu (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp), crotalária juncea (Crotalarea juncea) e aveia preta (Avena strigosa Schreb), pousio e área sob sistema de plantio convencional (testemunha). Nas subparcelas, após a dessecação das coberturas, plantou-se milho e soja, sendo estas culturas rotacionadas no segundo ano... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo). / Abstract: The establishment of covering cultures for formation and maintenance of the cultural residues in the soil surface, mainly in the cerrado areas, has been finding some obstacles, because the climatic conditions in these areas favor the decomposition of these vegetable residues. The no tillage system implantation in these areas, has been increasing exponentially, however it has been used as base, the data generated in other areas of the country, in other climatic conditions. The present study had as main objective to study the covering plants more used in this area, evaluating the time of decomposition of cultural remains, the accumulation and liberation of nitrogen for a period up to 320 days, associating these data to the productivity of the cultures. Also, it was made the observation the soil of temperature and humidity, weekly, during the period of January to June 2000, in the depths of 0 - 5 and 5 - 10 cm. After two agricultural years, it was made an evaluation of the influence of the covering plants in some physical soil properties in the area. The experimental design was random blocks, with subdivided plots and four repetitions. The treatments used consisted in eight covering types: pearl millet (Pennisetum americanum sin. tiphoydes), braquiária (Brachiaria brizantha), sorgun (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench), pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp), sunn hemp (Crotalárea juncea) and black oat (Avena strigosa Schreb), fallow land, area in conventional system. In the subplots, after the covering plants dessecation, it was planted corn and soybean, and these cultures were rotated in the second year. Among the appraised coverings it was verified that millet and the sunn hemp were the cultures that presented the best score in dry mass production. Nitrogen accumulation and liberation in the appraised periods... (Complete abstract, click eletronic address below). / Doutor

Abstract: The success of no tillage system is directly related to the selection and efficiency of the seeders components as well as of the suitability of the forward speed and soil and vegetable covering characteristics. This research was carried out in a corn (Zea mays L.) field aiming to evaluate the operational and energetic performance of a no-tillage seeder in two soil types with different vegetable covering and with different forward speeds, furrow opener and cut elements. The performance were evaluated through parameters of seeds longitudinal uniformity distribution, seeding depth, soil mobilized area, tractor and seeder tractive wheel slips, draw bar pull and power requirements, fuel consumption, plantules emergency, culture growing and productivity. The experiments were carried out in two different farms. One at Lageado Experimental Farm, which the soil is classified as ‘Nitossolo Vermelho distroférrico’ covered with 7 t.ha-1 of dry matter of corn, lupine and weed residues. The other experiment was carried out at São Manuel Experimental Farm, wich soil is classified as ‘Latossolo Vermelho’ covered with 20 t.ha-1 of dry matter of Brachiaria spp and corn residues. Both experiments designs were 2x3x3 factorial in randomized blocks with four replications. The factors examined were: two furrow opener mechanisms (doubledisk and chisel opener); three tractor-seeder forward speeds (5.5; 7.9 and 10.1 km.h-1); and three covering cut mechanisms (smoothly, fluted and notched cut disks). The soil type and vegetable coverage interfered in the global seeder 4 performance and their cut and furrow opener components. Comparing with the experiment carried in Botucatu, the experiment carried in São Manuel provided larger values of: seeding depth, tractor wheel slip, percentage of soil covering, draw bar pull and power requirements, hourly... (Complete abstract, click electronic access below) / Orientador: Carlos Antonio Gamero / Coorientador: Sérgio Hugo Benez / Banca: Carlos Eduardo Angeli Furlani / Banca: Antonio Jose da Silva Maciel / Banca: Rubens Siqueira / Banca: Geraldo da Silva / Doutor