o intervalo adequado, foi comparada a variância de falta de ajuste do modelo de amostragem diária com as variâncias de falta de ajuste dos modelos com diferentes intervalos de amostragens pelo teste F. Os cronogramas de amostragens para ajuste de curvas de crescimento de plantas de alface sob hidroponia, para experimentos de primavera/verão e verão/outono, possuem intervalos iguais a dois dias, para fitomassa seca total da planta e da folha; intervalos de quatro dias, para fitomassa de raiz; e, diariamente, para área foliar.Termos para indexação: Lactuca sativa, variância, fitomassa, área foliar.
Sampling chronology of hydroponics lettuce plants for adjusting vegetative growth curvesAbstract -The objective of this work was to determinate a sampling chronology to adjust lettuce hidroponic growth curves during its vegetative development. The variety Regina was grown from September 8, 2004 until November 19, 2004 (spring/summer) and February 22, 2005 until May 24, 2005 (summer/fall). Plants were placed inside a plastic covered greenhouse in Santa Maria, RS, Brazil. Based on the adjusted cosine model, daily samples were taken as standard and different sampling intervals were simulated in order to better adjust the same model. To estimate de adequate sampling interval a comparison was conducted between the variance of lack of adjustment of the daily sampling with the variance of lack of adjustment of different samplings intervals using an F test. Sampling chronograms for adjusting crop growth curves of hydroponics lettuce plants for both spring/ summer and summer/fall seasons present a time interval of two days for total plant or leaf dry weight and four days intervals for root dry weight or leaf area.