Palm heart is a very appreciated meal in the Brazilian and world cuisine. Among several edible palm tree species, pejibaye excels due to early yield, tillering, rusticity and ideal processing traits. It was introduced in the northwestern region of São Paulo in 1994, and it is considered by extensionists and growers as a promising crop for the region, despite the lack in technical information, among them the method and time of fertilizer application. Those factors leaded us to develop experiment in a stand irrigated by microsprinklers, in which pejibaye plant spacing was of 2 x 1 m (among rows x between plants). There were four treatments: manual fertilization in the rows every three months; monthly fertigation, bimontly fertigation and fertigation every three months. Twenty-two days after planting (March 2, 2000) the first harvest was done and thereafter at every two months. Considering the eleven yields, fertigation every three months and bimonthly fertigation yielded 2.60 and 1.84 t ha-1 of palm heart, respectively, while for manual and monthly fertigation yield was of 3.23 and 2.69 t ha-1, respectively. These results suggest that manual fertilization in the rows every three months, monthly and bimontly fertigation are the best practices for crops in early stages of production.
Bactris gasipaes; microsprinkler; fertigation
