Rootstocks on the Nutritional Status of Seedlings of the Main Mango Cultivars of the São Francisco Valley

Abstract

ABSTRACT Mango is the fruit most exported by Brazil, with a significant increase in cultivated area in recent years. However, the orchards have been made up of seedlings produced by the grafting process, but without identifying the most suitable rootstock for each cultivar, which affects the competitiveness of mango farming, since the rootstock affects, among other factors, the growth and nutrient absorption from the canopy cultivar. The objective of this study was to evaluate the nutritional status and mineral nutrition of ‘Palmer,’ ‘Tommy Atkins,’ ‘Kent’ and ‘Keitt’ mango seedlings grafted onto the polyembryonic rootstocks Capucho, Coquinho and Espada. The experiment was carried out between October 2019 and May 2020 at the Fruit Growing Nursery of the Agricultural Sciences Campus of the Federal University of Vale do São Francisco (UNIVASF), in Petrolina-PE, in a 3 × 4 factorial scheme, corresponding to three polyembryonic rootstocks (Espada, Capucho and Coquinho) and four crown cultivars (‘Palmer,’ ‘Keitt,’ ‘Kent’ and ‘Tommy Atkins’), with five replications of ten plants each. Leaf contents of macronutrients (N, P, K, Ca), micronutrients (Cu and Fe) and silicon depend on the scion (Tommy Atkins, Palmer, Keitt and Kent) x rootstock (Espada, Capucho and Conquinho) combination. The leaf contents of S, Mg, B, Mn and Mo in the scion are affected by the rootstock adopted for mango propagation In general, for macro and micronutrient absorption purposes, the sword rootstock and the ‘Keitt’ cultivar are the best combination for most of the variables analyzed in the research. The effect of rootstock on the nutritional status of scion cultivars (Tommy Atkins, Palmer, Keitt and Kent) must be taken into consideration when interpreting crop nutrition.