Análise de crescimento e produtividade de duas variedades de cana-de-açúcar (Saccharum spp) influenciadas por doses de fósforo

Abstract

The knowledge of the leaf area is required every time the sugarcane is subjected to evaluation in which different varieties are compared or submitted to different environmental conditions, managements or fertilizations, therefore evidently showing alteration in dimensions of the plant leaves, so affecting the photosynthetic process. Although the higher breathing-photosynthesis balance increases the amount of the assimilates available to vegetative growth (Net assimilation rate), the preferential carbon allocation for the different fractions of the leaf-plant, stalks, and root system, that is conditioned by the medium and/or management, can change the growth indexes. Thus, the estimates of those indexes can supply subsidies for understanding the adaptations of the plants under different medium conditions: light, temperature, moisture and soil fertility. The growth analysis is considered as standard method, since it is fundamentally based on the fact that about 95% on average of the dry matter accumulated by plants during growth rather result from the photosynthetic activity (Benincasa, 2003). The remaining comes from the absorption of mineral nutrients. Although at lower amounts, the mineral nutrients are indispensable to the vegetal growth and development, since they are absorbed and incorporated into every vegetative biomass. On direct or indirect way, they participate into production of the organic compounds as well as in sucrose´, that is produced from the phosphates-trioses transported from the chloroplast to cytosol and is mainly exported to the vacuoles. The present study was carried out to evaluate the methods for estimation of the leaf area, population density, growth and yield of two sugarcane cultivars provided with high productive potential and fertilized with different phosphorus doses in the cane plant cycle. The randomized block experimental design was used with five replicates under a factorial scheme 2 x 6, and the treatments were composed by the cultivars RB867515 and RB92579 under six P doses (0, 30, 60, 90, 120 and 150 kg ha-1). At planting time, all plots were given amounts corresponding to 33 and 200 kg ha-1 N and K, respectively. When beginning the rainy season at 210 DAP, either side-dressing fertilization and the micronutrient fertilization at the doses 67; 6; 6; and 7 kg ha-1 N, Cu, Mn and Zn, respectively were accomplished along the cropping line. Nine evaluations were performed with plants collected within 2.4 m2 at 30-days average intervals for estimation of the leaf area by two methods, plant population and dry matter accumulation in either photosynthetically active leaves and the whole plant. The tenth sampling was accomplished at 458 DAP in order to determine the yield of the apparent sucrose. After obtaining the data, the statistical analysis was accomplished, by using the program SISVAR. The estimate of the leaf area by using just the leaf +3 is an alternative to the conventional estimate method, when determining the foliar area for sugarcane crop. The increased phosphate fertilization contributes to increment the leaf area in the sugarcane crop, specially for the RB92579 cv. The phosphate fertilization widely affected the leaf area index (IAF), dry matter accumulation in plant, crop growth rate (TCC), relative growth rate (TCR), net assimilation rate (TAL), and both stalk and sucrose yields. During the period from 280 to 310 DAP, the highest IAF and TCC occurred, whereas the RB92579 cv. showed higher values. The RB92579 cv., showed higher yield of dry matter, industrializable stalks and apparent sucrose.