Abstract
The present study aimed to analyze the initial growth of the corn hybrid AG 1051 cultivated in soil fertilized with human urine, cassava wastewater and cattle manure. The experimental design was completely randomized with four replicates and eight treatments: T1 (Control – without fertilization), T2 (HU – Human urine), T3 (CW – Cassava wastewater), T4 (BM – Cattle manure), T5 (BM + HU – Cattle manure + Human urine), T6 (BM + CW – Cattle manure + Cassava wastewater), T7 (HU + CW – Human urine + Cassava wastewater) and T8 (HU + CW + BM – Human urine + Cassava wastewater + Cattle manure). ESI (emergence speed index) and E% (emergence percentage) were determined by daily counting all seedlings emerged in a period of seven days and, at 15 DAS (days after sowing), plant height was measured. The use of cattle manure led to higher ESI and E% compared with the other treatments, as well as the variable plant height. For production variables, T5 caused highest increment in shoot dry phytomass and there were no significant differences between treatments for shoot dry phytomass. It was concluded that T4, T6 and T5 led to higher performance in the initial growth stage.
Highlights
Corn (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important crops in the world and, Brazil is the third largest global producer, it does not stand out in the same way with respect to yield
According to the results for the effects of different types of fertilizers used in basal fertilization, a functional relationship was observed between the treatments, for the individual and combined application of the bio-fertilizers, since the treatment with only cattle manure (T4) led to higher emergence speed index (ESI), compared with the others, with a percent difference of 49.1% in comparison to T6 (BM + CW)
Such difference in ESI may have been favored by the fact that cassava wastewater is a residue with highly cyanogenic potential when hydrolyzed, an effect that was observed on all treatments in which cassava wastewater was used with one of the fertilizers (Figure 1A)
Summary
Corn (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important crops in the world and, Brazil is the third largest global producer, it does not stand out in the same way with respect to yield. The yield in Brazil is considered as low compared with other producing countries. Such poor performance is mainly related to factors such as mineral nutrition, population density and plant arrangement (Cruz et al, 2008). Nitrogen and phosphorus are the most required nutrients by the corn crop and are the ones available at lowest concentrations in the soil (Sousa et al, 2017). These macronutrients directly influence grain production, because they positively act on the number of grains per ear and individual grain weight (Valderrama et al, 2011). Phosphorus deficiency influences nitrogen absorption, causing reduction in leaf growth and compromising grain formation and development (Silva et al, 2009; Oliveira et al, 2012, Martin et al, 2011)
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