Leaf composition and productivity of yellow passion fruit (Passiflora edulis Sims. “Guinezinho”) in soil with bovine biofertilizer and nitrogen

Abstract

The use of alternative inputs, derived from the fermentation of fresh organic matter, exerts significant importance in the pasiculture in partial substitution to synthetic commercial fertilizers. An experiment was conducted in the period from 2013 to 2014 to evaluate the effects of bovine biofertilizer and nitrogen, on leaf mineral composition of macronutrients, micronutrients and sodium and productivity of yellow passion fruit. The treatments were arranged in randomized blocks with three replicates and nine plants per plot. We arranged a 5 × 2 factorial scheme, referring to the bovine biofertilizer applied to the soil in the liquid form (B) in the proportions in water (W) of 0 (0B + 4W); 25 (1B + 3W); 50 (2B + 2W); 75 (3B + 1W) and 100% (4B + 0W), in the soil without and with nitrogen. The seedlings were developed from fruit seeds with large size, oblique shape and mass. The bovine biofertilizer was applied at 4 L plant-1 in water, 7 days before and 90 days after transplanting of 50-day-old seedlings. The nitrogen was applied to the relevant plots every 30 days after transplantation of the seedlings until the end of the experiment. The resulrs showed that plants were adequately supplied in N, Mg, S, B, Cu and Zn, but deficient in P, K, Ca, Cu, Fe and Mn at the beginning of flowering. The highest fruit production of 30.75 t ha 1 were obtained from the plants in soil with 100% of bovine biofertilizer and with nitrogen. Due to the higher fruit productivity in plants with biofertilizer bovine + nitrogen, compared to those treated with only bovine biofertilizer, it is verified that the organic input does not substitute the nitrogen for the cultivation of the yellow passion fruit.