Organic sources in the fertilization of forage cactus varieties resistant to carmine-cochineal in the Semi-arid of Paraíba

The forage cactus has a high potential for phytomass production, but extracts high amounts of nutrients from the soil. Fertilizing the palm groves is essential for the satisfactory maintenance of the productive levels of the forage cactus plantation, and one should always opt for the fertilizer with the highest economic profitability. In this context, the objective was to evaluate the productive performance of forage cactus varieties, submitted to organic fertilization in 17 municipalities of three Mesoregions and 10 Microregions of the State of Paraíba. A randomized block design with split plots was used, using three varieties of cactus forage resistant to Carmine Cochineal (Miúda, Ear de Elefante Mexicana and Baiana) in the main plot, in the sub plots three sources of organic fertilization were used (bovine manure, fulvic acid and humic acid), in addition to a treatment without fertilization (control), with four repetitions. At 730 days after planting, productivity in green mass and dry mass were evaluated. The results were submitted to analysis of variance by the F test and compared by the Tukey test at 5% probability. Among the organic inputs tested, cattle manure promoted the best productive yields for forage cactus, in addition to being more easily purchased by producers.