Espa？amento de plantio e intervalos de colheita na biomassa e no óleo essencial de geranio

geranium (pelargonium graveolens) is an aromatic herb and its essential oil is commonly used in the creation of drugs and cosmetics worldwide. the plant is well adapted to the climatic conditions of the brazilian northeast, but there are few data on its quantitative and qualitative yield. the aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of plant spacing and harvest intervals of geranium on the production of biomass and essential oil. three different plant spacings (50x50, 50x60 and 50x80 cm) and three harvest intervals (8, 12 and 16 weeks) were tested. the highest values of total fresh and dry weight of leaves and stems (2679.04 g m-2; 424.62 g m-2; 1035.08 g m-2; 136.85 g m-2, respectively) and yield of essential oil (7.56 ml m-2), that are characteristics of direct interest for the market, were obtained at harvest intervals of eight weeks and at a spacing of 50x50 cm. in other analyzed variables, there was little difference between the treatments, however, long periods of harvest are less productive because decrease of values of all variables were observed in the last harvests of each interval. thus, best quantity and quality results for geranium were obtained on an interval of 8 weeks, and spacing of 50x50 cm.