Adubação potássica em clones de palma forrageira

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the agronomic performance of Nopalea cochenillifera clones under different levels of potassium. Cladodes of forage palm were selected and collected (in the middle third of the plant), which was three years old, in the UAST experimental area. These cladodes went through a healing period of 10 days. They were then placed in pots (larger diameter) = 24 cm (smaller diameter) = 17 and 23 cm deep), with a capacity of 7 kg of soil, presenting deep drains, covering the bottom of the vessel with gravel to facilitate drainage. The experiment was arranged in a randomized block design in a 5x2 factorial scheme, using five levels of potassium (0, 250, 500, 750 and 1000 Kg.ha-1) and two forage palm clones (Giant Sweet and Sweet Child), with four replicates. Five biometric campaigns were carried out in August, September, October, November and December / 2018 to measure the plant height, length, width and thickness of cladodium, as well as the number of cladodes in order and totals . For the comparison test of means, only the data of the last campaign were used. The clones presented a similar response to potassium fertilization, presenting non significant results for fertilization levels. When comparing the two clones, there was no significant difference for all studied variables: plant height, number of cladodes, length, width and thickness of cladodes. Potassium fertilization does not influencethe morphological, productive and potassium parameters of plant tissues during the initial growth of the genus Nopalea. The software used was R-project version 3.5.0 and SigmaPlot 10.0.