EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT IRRIGATION DEPTHS ON THE CONTENT OF TSH1188 COCOA SEEDLINGS PHOTOSYNTHETIC PIGMENTS

Resumen

Cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) is a plant whose use is distributed in many different ways, being used for human consumption and as a raw material in the production of chocolate, cocoa powder, jellies, juice pulp, honey and butter. In animal handling, it is associated with the manufacture of feed and can also be used for agricultural production such as the use of fertilizers. Given the expressive importance of the crop, this study aimed to evaluate the effect of different irrigation depths on the levels of photosynthetic pigments in seedlings of TSH 1188 genotype cocoa. For this purpose, five irrigation depths were applied, corresponding to 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 mm day^-1. The experimental design was completely randomized with 20 seedlings per treatment. At 55 days after sowing, photosynthetic pigments were extracted and quantified, and the content of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll and carotenoids was determined. The results were submitted to analysis of variance by the F test at 5% probability. Regression models that best applied to the effects of the irrigation depth on the evaluated characteristics were adjusted. The irrigation depth of 7.74 mm d^-1 had the highest total chlorophyll content, being the most recommended for the production of TSH 1188 cocoa seedlings.