The castor bean crop has a social and economical importance for the Northeast region due to the social inclusion and employment. The experiment aimed to study the sensitivity of the castor bean to soil water levels applied at different phenological stages, evaluating the production and fruit quality in the seeding and regrowth cycles. The experimental design was a randomized block in a 2 x 4 factorial scheme, consisting of two castor bean cultivars (BRS Paraguaçu and BRS Nordestina) and 4 levels of available soil water (40, 60, 80, e 100%) applied during growth and frutification with three replications. The data were analysed statistically through analysis of variance (F teste) and Tukey test was used for the comparison of the cultivars and regression analysis for the quantitative factor. The increase of soil water availability for the plant at the different phenological stages studied increased production significantly and promoted positive alterations in the fruit quality of both cultivars. Both cycles presented similar performance with an elevated quality of the final product. The best performance of the castor bean was obtained when the available soil water content during the whole phenological period was kept at 100%.
Ricinus communis L; pruning management; irrigation
