Correlation of physiological and productive parameters of cowpea under organic fertilization

Abstract

ABSTRACT The work was intended to evaluate the effect of different organic compounds originating from the mixture of agroindustrial and urban wastes, as well as their doses in the physiology and production of cowpea. The experiment was conducted under a randomized block design, in a 4 x 5 + 2 factorial arrangement, with four organic fertilizers (3 composed obtained from of sewage sludge, green coconut shell, carnauba butt; and sewage sludge biochar), five doses (20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 t ha-1) and two additional treatments (without fertilization and mineral fertilization). We evaluated the leaf gas exchange in three phenological stages and the productive aspects. Regarding the physiological variables, the compounds with carnauba butt and green coconut shell promoted the best results and throughout the crop cycle, the gas exchange decreased. The productive aspects were increased by about 60%, especially due to the treatments with organic compounds. The PCA can confirm the univariate results, with emphasis on compounds with green coconut shell and carnauba butt. The high percentage of explanation found in axis 1 (60.49%) may be associated with the fact that the gas exchange and production variables are highly responsive to fertilization. The treatment with biochar caused a reduction in both in the physiological and in the productive aspects. The compounds with carnauba tip and green coconut shell promote satisfactory results, being viable alternatives to complement chemical fertilization with an indicated dose of 300g pot-1 or 60 t ha-1.

Keywords

• Principal component analysis
• Waste destination
• Plant physiology
• Production
• Vigna unguiculata