Abstract
Sugarcane is one of the first activities of economic importance in Brazil. The understanding of the nutritional dynamics at different phenological stages of the sugarcane crop with the use of nitrogen-fixing bacteria has been one of the alternatives to decrease fertilizer consumption and increasing plant production. This study aimed to assess the morphophysiological attributes in the initial growth and nutrition of two sugarcane varieties inoculated with strains of diazotrophic bacteria, individually and in an association, in a greenhouse. The [...]
Highlights
In the agricultural context, Brazil stands out as the world’s largest sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) producer, with a production of about 626 million tons and a harvested area of 8.6 million hectares, distributed in all producing states (Conab, 2018)
Thirteen attributes selected by the multivariate analyses were analyzed in this study: shoot dry matter (SDM), fresh stem matter (StFM), root fresh matter (RFM), sprouting rate index (SRI), stem diameter (SD), length of the leaf 3+ (LL), stem length (SL), plant height (PH), and contents of N, Cu, Mn, Fe, and Zn
When the multivariate clustering analysis was carried out by the hierarchical method, the dendrogram constructed from samples of biometric variables and nutrient concentration in the plant as a function of treatments showed the existence of possible patterns of groupings, in which there is evidence of separation into two groups according to the cultivar under study (Figure 1)
Summary
Brazil stands out as the world’s largest sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) producer, with a production of about 626 million tons and a harvested area of 8.6 million hectares, distributed in all producing states (Conab, 2018). Sugar and ethanol productions are expected to reach 35 million tons and 28 billion liters, respectively (Conab, 2018) In this context, the use of chemical fertilizers is essential for agricultural production. Brazilian sugarcane cultivars are estimated to extract approximately 260 kg ha-1 of total N at the plant-cane phase and 120 kg ha-1 at the ratoon phase (Vitti et al, 2011; Baptista et al, 2014) In general, these cultivars present a low response to mineral N fertilizers, with an average application of 60-70 kg ha-1 yr-1 of N in sugarcane plantations (Urquiaga et al, 2012; Oliver and Silva, 2018). This low response is related, among other factors, to associations that occur between sugarcane and N-fixing bacteria
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