Exigências nutricionais e sintomas de deficiência de macronutrientes em plantas jovens de Moringa oleifera Lam.

Abstract

The Moringa oleifera Lam., is a perennial plant belonging of the moringaceae family and is native from northwest of India, although widely distributed in India, Egypt, Thailand, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Jamaica, Philippines, Nigeria, and Northeast of Brazil. It is a plant species utilized as ornamental in parks and gardens, animal and human feeding, medicinal and in the water treatment for human consumption. To induce and to characterize symptoms of macronutrients deficiencies as well as dry mass accumulation and nutrient concentrations in roots, stem and leaves under such an growth conditions, an experiment was carried out during 33 days in a greenhouse of the Department of Agricultural Engineering of the Federal University of Campina Grande, utilizing seedlings of Moringa oleifera Lam., raised in plastic pots filled with river sand and irrigated with the following nutrient solutions: complete nutrient solution (macro and micronutrients) or with omission of N, P, K+ , Ca2 + , Mg2 + , and S. The statistical design utilized was the entirely randomized with three replicates per treatment. In a general way, omission of K+ , Ca2 + , and S of the solution, did not result in alterations of both growth and total dry mass (TDM) accumulation standard of young Moringa oleifera Lam., plants, then characterizing they to have a high level of efficiency for nutrient utilization, mainly K+ and Ca2 + . The omission of N, P e Mg+ 2 gives rise to similar reductions in MST production and affected growth performance. The omission of Mg2 + , provoked increase in concentration of P of roots and Ca+ 2 of stem and of leaf, while K+ concentration was reduced. This result characterizes the existence of a certain antagonism among K+, Ca2 + , and Mg2 + , . The omission of S reduced N and increased P concentrations, which characterizes a competitive effect between S and P. The first symptoms of deficiency start to be visible 15 days after the macronutrients omission. With exception of the treatment with the omission of S, all the others had presented visual symptoms of deficiency. By the time that the first visual symptoms started to be perceived, the Moringa oleifera Lam. plants present an efficient absorption system and, mainly, storage and use of nutrients