Information about the response of onion to different potassium doses may contribute to optimizing the use of fertilizers and, consequently, make the activity more profitable and environmentally sustainable. In this context, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of doses of potassium on onion yields. Two field experiments were carried out in the periods of September to December 2012 and April to July 2013. The experimental design used was completely randomized blocks with four replications. The treatments corresponded to the potassium doses (0, 36, 72, 108, 144 and 180 kg ha-1 of K2O). Potassium fertilization promoted an increase in the content of K in the leaf, commercial and total yield, with the maximum obtained in the dose of 180 kg ha-1 of K2O. The maximum overall and commercial yields were respectively 54.69 and 54.12 t ha-1 in the experiment of September to December 2012 and 47.39 and 46.39 t ha-1 in that of April to July 2013.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of onion cultivars as a function of the spacing between plants. The experimental design was a complete randomized block in a 3 x 4 factorial scheme, with four replicates. The treatments were composed of the combination between three onion cultivars (Vale Ouro IPA 11, Serena and Rio das Antas) and four plant spacings (3, 6, 8 and 10 cm). The evaluated characteristics were total, marketable and unmarketable yield of bulbs, percentages of bulbs in classes 1, 2, 3 and 4, bulb mean weight, bulb dry weight. In onion cultivation, the cultivars Rio das Antas and Serena are the most indicated, with the highest marketable yields at 6 and 3 cm spacings between plants, respectively. The cultivar Vale Ouro IPA 11 presented higher marketable yield for the spacing of 5 cm between plants.

The italian zucchini is a vegetable of national importance, much appreciated, which requires techniques that aim to increase production in less space. Plant spacing can influence the development of plants and the fruit production. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of Italian zucchini cultivars as a function of plant spacing. The experimental design was a randomized blocks in a 2 x 4 factorial scheme with four repetitions. The treatments consisted of a combination of two cultivars of zucchini (Alícia and Caserta) and four spacings between plants (0.4, 0.5, 0.6 and 0.7 m). The evaluated characteristics were: total number of fruits plant-1, number of commercial fruits plant-1, total productivity, commercial and non commercial, fresh mass of commercial fruits and dry mass of the plant. The cultivars responded differently to spacings between plants. The Alicia hybrid showed higher commercial yield, 28,490.5 kg ha-1 at spacing of 0.64 m between plants and Caserta cultivar, 26,398.8 kg ha-1 at spacing of 0.4 m.