FERREIRA, R. S.; http://lattes.cnpq.br/4425843014589245; FERREIRA, Rosinaldo de Sousa.
Abstract:
In the semiarid, the cultivation grown of castor bean emerges as alternative in
the economic, environmental and social sectors, employment generation and generating
income, strengthening the agricultural economy and the rural sector. Fertilization is an
agricultural practice, that provides nutrients to the soil and improve its physical and chemical
properties of. Thus, the castor beazcake, as a fertilization alternative, presents significant
amounts of N, P and K, and act increasing the capacity of water storage; in other way, nickel
is an important element for plants, whose deficiency prevents the action of urease, increasing
the accumulation of urea in the leaves. Thus the aim, of this work was, to analyze the
influence of castor bean cake and nickel on growth and physiological behavior of castor bean
'BRS Energia'. The study was accomplished at the Embrapa Cotton, Campina Grande, PB, in
a completely randomized design, organized in a 4 x 4 factorial scheme, four doses of nickel
(0.0, 4.0, 8.0, 12 mL of the solution in concentration of 50 mg L"1) applied in the leaves, four
doses of castor bean cake (0.0, 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 t ha"1) with four replications. The behavior of
growth: stem diameter, plant height, leaf area, leaves, stems and roots dry matter;
physiological behaviors: fluorescence, relative chlorophyll index and gas exchange were
evaluated. The data were subjected to analysis of variance and regression. The castor bean
cake influenced the growth parameters, dry matter, quantum efficiency of photosystem I I ,
relative chlorophyll index and gas exchange. It was reported that there was no changes in the
growth, leaf area, dry weight of stem and roots, fluorescence nor in relative chlorophyll index
in response to application of nickel. In turn, the application of castor bean cake reduced
transpiration, stomatal conductance, instantaneous water use efficiency and instantaneous
carboxylation efficiency.