Effect of foliar fertilization on <i>Ananas comosus</i> L. Merr. cv. `Cayena lisa' acclimatization

Abstract

The low survival and slow growth of in vitro pineapple plants (Ananas comosus L. Merr.) in acclimatization stage limit the use of biotechnological techniques for it propagation. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of foliar fertilization in the acclimatization of pineapple plants cv. `Smooth Cayenne'. Two variants of foliar fertilization were compared. The first, plants were fertilized daily after the last irrigation with a minimum dose increased until three months of culture. The second included the same fertilizer at maximum dose with daily dose foliar applications after the last irrigation 10 days from planting to three months of cultivation. As a control, unfertilized plants were included. Every 20 days to three months of culture height (cm) of plants was measured, the number of leaves per plant was quantified and the length and width of the leaves was measured. It was observed that fertilization had effect under the experimental conditions tested on the plants variables. After 90 days of culture plants obtained in the treatment with daily fertilization at maximun dose (option 2), met the requirements of height, length and width of the leaf for transplantation to field conditions. Key words: pineapple, propagation, zeolite