Pejibaye is a good alternative for the extractive exploration of species such as juçara and açaí. However, when it is produced by seeds its planting is heterogeneous, which makes micropropagation a good alternative for cultivation in large scale. This study aimed to evaluate the influence of the interaction between ammonium nitrate and potassium nitrate on peach palm somatic embryos rooting in vitro cultivated, for optimization of the micropropagation protocol. The embryos were inoculated in MS medium with different concentrations of NH4NO3 and KNO3. Morphophisyologic parameters of root development were measured at 120 and 240 days of cultivation. At 120 days, at lower nitrogen concentrations, roots were stimulated to grow and major root branching occurred at low concentrations of NH4NO3 and high concentrations of KNO3. At 240 days, there was a reduction of the root growing, with more percentage of thin roots. It was concluded that up to 120 days, the microplants should be cultivated in culture medium with lower concentrations of NH4NO3 and higher concentrations of KNO3 than those recommended by MS medium, and after this period they should be cultivated at the recommended doses.
Pejibaye; nitrogen; Bactris gasipaes; micropropagation
