Environmental stimulus in lettuce genotype in agroecological cultivation system

Abstract

Vegetable production system has presented and developed strategies to increase the level of sustainability of production, adding information that expands agroecological production, resulting in better use of different components necessary for production. This study aims to evaluate the effect of different coverages in relation to the expression of the genotype in three crops of different agricultural years, enabling the best use of natural resources, bringing effective subsidies for a more sustainable production. The study was conducted in three growing seasons, in 2017, 2018 and 2019 crop years, in a randomized block design with four replications, using three soil covers (corn silage residue, elephant grass straw and soil without vegetation cover) and a lettuce cultivar (Lettuce “Iceberg”). It was possible to observe through the analysis of variance that only the year variable promoted alterations on the analyzed characters, with no effect of the different coverages. The highest production occurred in 2019 for all variables analyzed. Regarding the estimate of Pearson's linear correlation, it was possible to obtain significance at 0.01% of probability for the variables average total weight and productivity, with a significance of 1% of probability for the variables average diameter, average longitudinal diameter and productivity. There was no effect of soil cover for the variables of lettuce production and productivity, possibly related to excess water from precipitation in 2017, 2018 and 2019. In addition, the complementary effect of irrigation in the years of the experiment was, possibly, superior to the demand of the crop by reducing the effect of ground cover on soil water dynamics.