Abstract
ABSTRACT Euterpe precatoria Mart. has been demanded due to the functional characteristics of its fruits and, therefore, its planting has been encouraged. However, there is a lack of information about the seedling production system of this palm tree. Neither a favorable environment nor the amount of fertilizer in the substrate have been defined for the production of healthy and vigorous seedlings. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of environments and doses of a slow-release fertilizer on the production of E. precatoria seedlings. The experiment was conducted in a randomized block design, with three replications and ten plants per plot. The treatments were arranged in a 4 x 5 factorial scheme, with four environments (under shading levels of 20 %, 30 %, 50 % and 75 %) and five doses of a slow-release fertilizer (0.0 kg m-3, 2.5 kg m-3, 5.0 kg m-3, 7.5 kg m-3 and 10.0 kg m-3 of substrate). The seedling height; root collar diameter; number of leaves; leaf, shoot, root and total dry mass; and the Dickson quality index were analyzed. There were significant interactions between the shaded environments and slow-release fertilizer doses for all the analyzed variables. The 75 %-shaded environment yielded better quality seedlings. The slow-release fertilizer can be used to produce E. precatoria seedlings in environments under shading levels of 50 % and 75 %, being the 4.60 kg m-3 and 8 kg m-3 doses, respectively, the most recommended ones.
Highlights
Single-stemmed Euterpe precatoria Mart. belongs to the Arecaceae family and is a neotropical palm of sub-canopy height, native to a region that extends from Central America to the north of South America (Henderson 1995)
The analyses of variance showed that all the E. precatoria growth variables were influenced by the different shaded environments and by the interaction between such environments and the slow-release fertilizer doses
Concerning the slow-release fertilizer doses, only the root dry mass and the Dickson quality index (DQI) were not significant (Table 2). These results indicate that E. precatoria seedlings respond to chemical fertilization, a fact that is corroborated by Mendonça et al (2006) and Araújo et al (2016), for E. oleracea in a shaded environment, and confirmed by Dapont et al (2016) for E. oleraceae and by Poorter (1999) for E. precatoria, evincing a relation between these two factors in the production of E. precatoria seedlings in the present study
Summary
Single-stemmed Euterpe precatoria Mart. belongs to the Arecaceae family and is a neotropical palm of sub-canopy height, native to a region that extends from Central America to the north of South America (Henderson 1995). Universidade Federal do Acre, Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Natureza, Rio Branco, AC, Brasil
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