Fertilization alternatives to produce Prosopis laevigata (Humb. & Bonpl. ex Willd.) M. C. Johnst at the nursery

Abstract

At present, little is known about the different options that involve the use of water-soluble and controlled release fertilizers, as well as the application doses in the production of Prosopis laevigata at the nursery. The aim of the present study was to assess the efficiency of the water soluble fertilizers Triple 16 (T16), Triple 19 (T19) and Poly-feed^® (Pf), in 100 mg L^-1 doses, combined with 3 and 6 g L ^-1 of controlled release fertilizer (Multicote^® = M) in substrate, as well as the costs involved in its application. The assessed treatments were: 1 (0 g M + water), 2 (3 g M + water), 3 (3 g M + T19), 4 (3 g M + Pf), 5 (3 g M + T16), 6 (6 g M + Water), 7 (6 g M + T19), 8 (6 g M + Pf) and 9 (6 g M + T16) arranged in a completely randomized experimental design with factorial arrangement and four replications. The variables of interest were height, diameter, total dry biomass and the robustness index. The water-soluble and controlled release fertilizers, as well as the combination of both had a significant effect on the addressed variables (p <0.001). Heights of 27.49 to 30.37 cm were obtained and the most outstanding diameters varied from 3.37 to 3.59 mm. The robustness index in treatments 1, 2, 5, 6 and 8 were less than 8. It is concluded that most of the variables responded better to treatment 7, which was more expensive than 5, and had similar results.