Orientador: Maurício Dutra Zanotto / Banca: Norberto da Silva / Banca: José Geraldo Carvalho do Amaral / Abstract: The castor bean (Ricinus communis L.) is high social economic value oil plant and a resource source to Brazil. To attend the increasing necessity of the raw material and the difficulty of production in industrial scale, it is essential the genetic material development in adequate size to facilitate the harvest, with precocious and uniform maturation, purposing the utilization of high technology and becoming possible the oil plant production in higher scale. The objective of this work was to evaluate the recurrent selection efficiency for height’s reduction of the castor bean plants Guarani cultivar, adequating its size to facilitate the harvest. Were developed four cycles of recurrent selection through the utilization of self-pollinated progenies in the Guarani cultivar for height’s reduction of plants, in edaphclimatic condictions of the São Manuel-SP and Botucatu-SP cities. The evaluations of plant’s height and grain’s productivity (kg.ha-1) of the four selection cycles and of the original cycle (cycle 0) were realized at São Manuel-SP and Botucatu-SP cities, under a casualised blocks design with five repetitions and useful parcels of 30 m2. The variance’s analysis for the characteristics plant’s height and grain’s productivity was made apart to each place and together for the two places and, afterwards it was realized the comparison of the averages by the Tukey test using 5% of probability. Were estimated for the two places, by the regression’s analysis... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Orientadora: Maria Aparecida Pessôa da Cruz Centurion / Banca: Paulo Henrique Caramori / Banca: Pedro Luís da Costa Aguiar Alves / Resumo: O objetivo do trabalho foi avaliar fenologia, crescimento, desenvolvimento, acamamento e produtividade de soja, conforme cultivar, época de semeadura e densidade de plantas, em Londrina - PR. Dez cultivares de soja foram semeadas em 18/10 e 28/11/2008, e conduzidas nas densidades de 250 e 400 mil plantas por hectare. Utilizou-se o delineamento em blocos ao acaso, com quatro repetições, e parcelas de quatro linhas de 8 m de comprimento. Quantificaram-se: (i) os dias, crescimento da haste e nós formados da emergência ao início do florescimento (VE-R1) e até a colheita (VE-R8); (ii) os dias até o início de enchimento de grãos (VE-R5); além de (iii) vagens e grãos por planta, massa de 100 sementes, ramificação, acamamento e produtividade na colheita (R8). A menor densidade de plantas promoveu maior formação de nós e ramos na haste principal. A primeira época condicionou maior crescimento das plantas no período reprodutivo e maior número de ramos. A segunda condicionou maior crescimento no período vegetativo. Períodos juvenis, na primeira, e fotoperíodos críticos, na segunda, influenciaram florescimentos, interagindo com os fotoperíodos, para a maioria das cultivares. O fator genético exerceu maior influência sobre as variáveis relacionadas ao desenvolvimento, produtividade e componentes da produção / Abstract: The objective of this research work was to evaluate phenology, plant growth, development, lodging and grain yield of soybean, according to cultivar, sowing date and plant density in Londrina, PR. Ten soybean cultivars were sown on Oct/18 and Nov/28/2008, and cropped under 250 and 400 thousand plants per hectare. A randomized block design with four replicates was applied with plots consisting of four rows of 8 m long. The following evaluations were determined: (i) number of days, stem growth and nodes formed from seedling emergence to beginning flowering (VE-R1) and also up to harvesting (VE-R8); (ii) number of days to beginning of seed filling (VE-R5); and (iii) number of pods and grains per plant, mass of 100 seeds, branching, lodging and grain yield at harvest (R8). The lowest plant population resulted in the largest number of branches and nodes on the main stem. The first sowing date promoted the largest plant growth on the reproductive stage and largest number of branches. The second resulted in the largest plant growth in the vegetative period. Juvenile period in the first planting date and critical photoperiods in the second influenced flowering, which interacted with photoperiods for the majority of the cultivars. Genetic factors had the greatest influence on the variables related to plant development, grain productivity and yield components / Mestre