Crecimiento de dos variedades de pitahaya (Hylocereus monacanthus e Hylocereus ocamponis) con aplicación de Ascophyllum nodosum

The agronomic management of pitahaya can enhance its yield. Thus, the use of Ascophyllumnodosum contributes to plantdevelopment. The objective was to evaluate the effect of Ascophyllumnodosumon height, stem diameter, length, shoot diameterand heat accumulation. Two varieties were used: Hylocereusmonacanthus(Lem.) Britton & Rose, Hylocereusocamponis (Salm)Britton & Rose and three doses of Ascophyllumnodosum (0, 1.0 and 2.0 L ha-1), thus, generating six treatments. The variableswere analyzed with SAS at 0.05 probability. The average minimum and maximum temperature was 19 and 37 °C and the heataccumulation was 1912 UC. The greatest height was presented by Hylocereusmonacanthus with the high dose of Ascophyllumnodosum with an increase of 7 % in relation to the treatment without application. Stem diameter was 16 % greater in the twovarieties and with the higher dose compared to the plants without application. In shoot length, H.monacanthus and H.ocamponisoutperformed the lowest treatments by 19%. The varieties H.monacanthus and H.ocamponis with applications of high doses of A.nodosum generated the highest values in the variables studied.