Growth and nutrients content of heliconia under mineral fertilization

Ariadna Linares-Gabriel,Nereida Rodríguez-Orozco,Mario Alejandro Hernández-Chontal,Gloria Esperanza De Dios-León,Armando Guerrero-Peña

doi:10.1590/2447-536x.v25i3.2058

Ariadna Linares-Gabriel, Nereida Rodríguez-Orozco + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1590/2447-536x.v25i3.2058

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Abstract

Abstract Heliconias have great commercial importance due to their durability of inflorescences, sizes, forms and bright colors. Regarding its production, the mineral nutrition of the crop is one of the most relevant aspects to obtain quality floral stems. The objective was to determine the influence of N-P-K on the growth and nutritional content of Heliconia stricta Dwarf Jamaican. A completely randomized block design was used with four treatments and five repetitions. The treatments consisted in fertilizing the soil with N-P-K. The levels of fertilization expressed in kg ha-1 of NPK were: control without application 00-00-00 (T100), 31-31-31 (T231), 62-62-62 (T362) and 93-93-93 (T493). The plants received the treatments for six months. Growth variables and nutrient contents of heliconia biomass were evaluated. The analysis of variance showed significant statistical differences (P ≤ 0.05) in the vigor and color of the plant, as well as the phosphorus, magnesium and copper contents. The significant increases in vigor and color were with doses 31-31-31 and 62-62-62 of NPK. As for the contents of P, Mg and Cu were influenced by doses 31-31-31, 62-62-62 and 93-93-93 of NPK. This work shows important findings in relation to the nutritional diagnosis in the foliar content of nutrients.

Highlights

Heliconia stricta ‘Dwarf Jamaican’ along with other cultivars have great commercial importance due to their durability of inflorescences and bright colors (Cantor et al, 2014)
In relation to its production, the application of synthetic fertilizers represent a significant percentage of production costs (Albuquerque et al, 2010), which translates into high amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium, iron, manganese and organic material (Matos-Viégas et al, 2014)
Potassium affects the performance of the floral stem and the content of P, K, Ca and Mg in leaves, besides the increase in the doses of K2O in the soil cause a reduction in the P content of the leaves (Beckmann-Cavalcante et al, 2016)

Summary

Introduction

Heliconia stricta ‘Dwarf Jamaican’ along with other cultivars have great commercial importance due to their durability of inflorescences and bright colors (Cantor et al, 2014). Concerning the functions of the three main macronutrients, nitrogen is an important component of all proteins and nucleotide acids; it is present in coenzymes, nucleotides, amides, ureides, in chlorophyll, among others. Phosphorus is part of the nucleic acids and participates in the synthesis of proteins, as a constituent of ATP and many coenzymes and intervenes in all metabolic processes of energy transfer. In the nutrition of heliconia and species of the order Zingiberales, nitrogen and phosphorus significantly increases the parameters of vegetative growth, flowering and yield in number of floral stems m2 (Patel et al, 2017). N, P and K improve the vegetative growth and yield of floral stems and rhizomes (Goh et al, 2018)

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