Abstract
For many ornamental plants there are no fertilization tables in Brazil and growers use, inappropriately, the same fertilizing for different species of ornamental plants. A first step is to know the nutrient uptake by these plants. The objective of this study was to determine the concentration and to characterize the accumulation of nutrients of the main tropical ornamental plants grown in the Ribeira Valley region, São Paulo state, Brazil: Clusia fluminensis, Dracaena marginata, Dypsis lutescens, Gardenia jasminoides, Ixora coccinea, Ligustrum sinense, Murraya paniculata, Podocarpus macrophyllus, Rhapis excelsa e Viburnum prunifolium. The plants were donated by local farmers and after sorting, these were divided into roots, stems and leaves, and, subsequently, washed, dried and was determined their concentration of nutrients. The experimental design was randomized using four repetitions and the species of ornamental plants were considered as treatments. The results were submitted to analysis of variance and compared by Scott-Knott test (5%). For the macronutrient, the greater accumulation of N was in Podocarpus macrophyllus. The Clusia fluminensis tree had the highest calcium and magnesium accumulations. The largest amounts of P and S were accumulated in Rhapis excelsa and Podocarpus macrophyllus. The greatest accumulation of K was in Rhapis excelsa, Dracaena marginata, Podocarpus macrophyllus, Murraya paniculata and Ixora coccinea. Smaller amounts of macronutrients were accumulated in Dypsis lutescens and Viburnum prunifolium. As for the macronutrients, the largest accumulation of Cu was observed in broad leaf Rhapis excelsa. Clusia fluminensis tree and Dracaena marginata accumulated the largest amounts of Mn. Regarding the Zn, Rhapis excelsa, Dracaena marginata and Ligustrum sinense were plants with higher accumulation. Smaller amounts of B were accumulated in Viburnum prunifolium, Dracaena marginata and Dypsis lutescens. Ligustrum sinense, Dypsis lutescens and Ixora coccinea accumulated lower amounts of Fe in relation to others. The accumulation of nutrients by ornamental plants is very different between species and this information should be used to adjust fertilizer recommendations. Ornamental plants were grouped as demand and NPK ratio, to assist in the management of fertilizer.
Highlights
The production and the market of flowers and ornamental plants are in the growth stage
The Mg content in the leaves was the most differed between species, occurring five groupings, the species with the highest concentration were the Dracaena marginata and Clusia fluminensis followed by Ixora coccinea, Podocarpus macrophyllus and Gardenia jasminoides, and other species at both levels groups lower (Table 4)
Viburnum prunifolium ansd Ligustrum sinense were the species with the highest concentration of Zn in their leaves and those that had lower leaf nutrient content was Rhapis excelsa, Podocarpus macrophyllus and Murraya paniculata (Table 5)
Summary
The production and the market of flowers and ornamental plants are in the growth stage. The plants that had lower dry matter accumulation in their stems were Dracaena marginata, Viburnum prunifolium and Dypsis lutescens (Table 3). The Podocarpus macrophyllus was the species with the highest amount of dry weight in the leaves, differing from Clusia fluminensis and Raphis excelsa that had an average accumulation, followed by other species (Table 3).
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
