Uso de resíduos de dendê no crescimento de Adenium obesum (Forssk.) Roem & Schult

Abstract

The desert rose is a crop of African origin with great demand in the ornamental plant market in Brazil. The use of a technically suitable, abundant and economically viable substrate for the cultivation of the crop is a pressing need. This work compared the effect of using palm oil residues with conventional substrates for the production of desert rose seedlings. The study was established in a completely randomized design, with 6 treatments: fiber from the palm oil processing process, without the addition of biochar; four biochar from palm bark produced at temperatures of 450°, 550°, 600° and 730º C and the commercial substrate TROPSTRATO, which was used as control, with 5 replications. The experimental units consisted of 1.1 kg of fiber per treatment, plus 366 g of biochar at each temperature. After 50 days of cultivation, the plants were harvested and evaluated for number of leaves, height, stem diameter (caldex), root length, wet weight and dry weight. The substrates were evaluated for inorganic components of the substrates and physicochemical analyses, such as pH, EC and humidity. The results were significant in the parameters fresh weight of the shoot (PFPA), dry weight of the root (PSR), dry weight of the shoot (PSPA), number of leaves (NF) and height of the shoot (APA), where the treatments with organic residues attributed superior measurements to the plants when compared to the commercial substrate, and the diameter of the caldex (DC), did not differ statistically from the commercial substrate, indicating that the use of waste can be extremely viable.