Critical levels and nutritional evaluation of irrigated “Prata-Anã” banana

Abstract

The study was conducted aiming to determine nutritional critical levels in the soil and in irrigated banana plants (cv. “Prata-Ana”), in the northern region of Minas Gerais State. For this, it was used the yield data and nutrient concentrations in the soil and in the reference leaf from 14 commercial areas of banana production in 2013, 2014 and 2015, adopting the method of reduced normal distribution. The critical levels of soil chemical attributes were 6.6 for pH, 45.1 mg dm-3 for P, 132.9 mg dm-3 for K, 3.9 cmolc dm-3 for Ca, and 1.3 cmolc dm-3 for Mg. Regarding leaf nutrients, the concentrations were 23.8; 1.7; 35.6; 6.6; 2.9 and 1.7 g kg-1 for N, P, K, Ca, Mg and S, respectively, and 62.3; 17.9; 280.3; 12.3 and 7.1 mg kg-1 for Fe, Zn, Mn, B and Cu, respectively. The methodology of reduced normal distribution for obtaining critical nutrient levels in soil and plants resembles those used by other authors. The most limiting soil nutrients in the year 2013 were K and Ca, and in 2014 and 2015 were P and Ca, resulting in low yields.