Technological innovations in the propagation of Açaí palm and Bacuri

Inovações tecnológicas na propagação do Açaizeiro e do Bacurizeiro

ABSTRACT

Açaí palm (Euterpe oleracea Mart.) and bacuri tree (Platonia insignis Mart.) are two important fruit species native to the Brazilian Amazon. The first species is widely cultivated in the Brazilian Amazon and with some orchards established in other regions of Brazil. Nevertheless, most of its production still comes from the dense and diversified native açaí orchards found in the floodplains of the Amazon River estuary and that in the last two decades have been managed for the production of fruits. The production of the second species is still dependent on extractivism of abundant natural populations in areas of secondary vegetation. Both species reproduce naturally sexually and asexually. In the case of açai tree, asexual reproduction occurs by means of the emission of tillers in the base of stems. For bacuri tree, reproduction is verified by means of abundant sprouts that arise from roots that develop horizontally, near the ground surface. The propagation of açaí palm tree, particularly sexually is a consolidated process, practically without innovations in the last years. Açaí seeds show rapid and relatively uniform germination. A seedling obtained from seeds is suitable for final planting four to six months after emergence of seedlings. Regarding propagation by asexual route, it has been demonstrated that tillers can be used for the production of seedlings. For this, they should be separated from the mother plant when they have two completely expanded leaves and one at the beginning of formation. The big challenge is to increase the multiplication rate of tillers. For bacuri tree, considerable advances have been obtained both for sexual and asexual propagation. Propagation by primary root cuttings or direct seeding at the definitive site constitutes innovations that overcome the problem of the slow and uneven germination of the bacuri seed. The developed grafting techniques allow both the production of grafted seedlings and grafting in the field, for plants from direct seeding.

Index terms
Euterpe oleracea; germination; grafting; Platonia insignis