Abstract
Sugarcane (Saccharum spp) is an expanding culture for the production of bioethanol around the world which requires certain practices to improve its productive performance at the different ecosystems. This work's aim is to evaluate the initial Sugarcane growth and drought tolerance through the application of biostimulants. For this purpose an experiment was conducted in a greenhouse using completely randomized design. Prior to planting, the cuttings were treated with: T1 - Water; T2 - Indolebutyric Acid (IBA); T3 - Boron + Zinc; T4 - Tryptophan; T5 - Kymon Plus® + Potamol®; and T6 - Stimulate®. Morphological analysis was performed at 40 and 124 days after planting (DAP) to assess the plant initial growth. The biostimulants effect on drought stress mitigation was evaluated at 120 DAP, after 3 days of suppression irrigation. The IBA and Stimulate® application delivered higher growth rates and biomass accumulation. When compared to Control treatment, the application of Ubyfol® and Stimulate® provided higher photosynthesis in the absence of drought stress and had higher PSII effective quantum yield even when plants were under drought stress. The application of Stimulate® enabled plants to maintain higher photosynthetic, transpiration and stomatal conductance rates under moderate drought stress. Key words: Drought stress, photosynthesis, Saccharum spp, transpiration
Highlights
Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) culture has great economic, social and environmental importance due to its large planted areas and capability to generate the raw material source for sugar and ethanol agribusiness (Ferreira Júnior et al, 2012)
Biomass production of plants treated with Indolebutyric Acid (IBA) and Stimulate® was approximately 25% higher than the Control treated plants (Table 2)
This may have been a consequence of the root system growth, which was 83% (IBA) and 80% (Stimulate®) higher compared to the Control treated ones
Summary
Sugarcane (Saccharum spp.) culture has great economic, social and environmental importance due to its large planted areas and capability to generate the raw material source for sugar and ethanol agribusiness (Ferreira Júnior et al, 2012). Recent years show an increase in the use of products known as plant biostimulants for a higher crop yield It is already considered a common technique in crops such as Rice (Garcia et al, 2009), Cotton (Albrecht et al, 2009), Soybean (Bertolin et al, 2010), Corn (Santos et al, 2013) and Sugarcane (Serciloto, 2002; Ayele et al, 2014). These substances used both in-furrow and as foliar application in sugarcane, have increased yield from 6% to 21%, with response magnitude non-dependent neither from cultivars nor from planting environments (Silva, 2010; Silva et al, 2010)
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