Abstract
Silicon (Si) and biostimulant management have been proposed techniques to reduce the impacts of abiotic stresses and to increase the productivity of several crops, however, there are still few concise results of the management of this crop. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effects of biostimulant and silicon treatments on isolated or mixed applications on mineral nutrition, yield and fiber quality of two cotton varieties. For this, an experiment was carried out in a randomized block design in the municipality of Luís Eduardo Magalhães-BA, in a 4 × 2 factorial arrangement, with four replications, in which four biostimulant treatments (control, without application; Si; biostimulant; and Si + biostimulant) were evaluated in two cotton varieties (FM 954GLT and FM 983GLT). The nutrient content of leaves, relative water content, electrolyte leakage, fiber yield, and quality were evaluated, the data collected were submitted to the F test and means were compared by Tukey at 5% probability. At the end of the experiment, it was verified that the management of Si and biostimulants increase the integrity of the cell wall, the association of Si + biostimulant increases the levels of N, Fe and Si foliar and reduces the levels of B and Mn, and do not influence on yield and fiber quality.
Highlights
The cotton crop is considered the most important natural fiber source produced in Brazil and Bahia is one of the main producing states
The basal fertilization consisted of 55 kg ha-1 of N and 250 kg ha-1 of P2O5 provided by the application of mono-ammonium phosphate (MAP) at the time of sowing (09/12/2016), and the topdressing fertilization consisted of 400 kg ha-1 of KCl, corresponding to 240 kg ha-1 of K2O, applied at 25 days after emergence (DAE), 200 kg ha-1 of ammonium sulfate (40 kg ha-1 of N and 44 kg ha-1 of SO4) at 15 and 35 DAE, and 5 L ha-1 of Mn, 2 L ha-1 of B, 1 L ha-1 of Zn, and 4 L ha-1 of amino acids applied thrice throughout the crop cycle (20, 40 and 60 DAE)
These were related to the best nutrition of the plant, there was no change in yield and fiber quality
Summary
The cotton crop is considered the most important natural fiber source produced in Brazil and Bahia is one of the main producing states. Several management techniques are adopted in the cotton production system, among them the application of silicon (Si) and the use of biostimulants has enabled a reduction of the biotic stresses in the plant, which in turn result in alterations in the development and growth of the plant and fiber, and plume quality. According to Luyckx et al (2017), silicon acts reducing the effects of water stress and directly influences fiber growth, in the maintenance of stretching and fineness. Cotton is a Si-accumulating plant by specific channels (Reynolds et al, 2016) and it is essential to understand the effects of this element on the distribution of nutrients inside the plant, as well as its influence on fiber development and quality
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