YIELD OF Solanum lycopersicum L. WHEN APPLYING NUTRIENTS WITH AND WITHOUT FERTIRIEGO IN INTERACTION WITH HOMOBRASINÓLIDO

Abstract

Objective: to evaluate the effect of fertigation and granular fertilization to the soil in interaction with the foliar application of a homobrasinolide in Solanum lycopersicum L.

Design / methodology / approach: The treatments were Fertigation (F), Fertigation plus brassinosteroids (F+Br), Granular fertilization (FG) and Granular fertilization + brassinosteroids (FG+Bra). A completely randomized design with four replications was used, where one plant of each treatment constituted an experimental unit. The 45-d-old plants were sprayed with 2 mg L-1 of Brasinosteroid CIDEF-4 and subsequently applications were made every 28 d. Plant height and stem diameter were measured 92 d after transplanting, while the yield was obtained by weighing the completely red fruits. An analysis of variance was performed using the GLM procedure and the comparison of means by Tukey (P ? 0.05) with the SAS 9.3 program.

Results: Fertigation induced greater tomato plant and reproductive growth compared to granular fertilization with or without the foliar application of homobrasinolide. Treatments with granular fertilizers decreased plant height by 10.36% and 10.45% with respect to fertigation. The yield with granulated fertilization with and without Br correspond to 76.6% and 75.80% of that achieved with Fertirriego with Br.

Study limitations / implications: The absence of the stressful environment did not favor the application of the homobrasinolide

Findings / Conclusions: Fertigation leads to greater growth and tomato yield under field conditions and the homogeneity of ambient temperatures did not favor the morphological or physiological expression of the homobrasinolide