Respuesta del cultivar de maíz trueno a la fertilización nitrogenada en condiciones edafoclimáticas del cantón Santa Rosa

Abstract

Corn (Zea mays L.) is a very important crop worldwide, due to the great amount of physical and chemical properties that it possesses, it is used in many areas in the industry, from this crop multiple products can be obtained that are destined for the feeding of both humans and animals, and as raw material for the elaboration of diverse industrial products; the advantage of this crop as a food product is that the dry or tender grain can be consumed. In the industry it becomes the source to obtain edible oil, alcohols, fuels and others. Worldwide it is distributed in many countries, being the main producers of corn: United States, Continental China, Brazil, Argentina, Ukraine, Mexico, India, Indonesia, Canada and Russian Federation. According to the latest updates of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in relation to area and production in the period 2015-2018, there was a total harvested area of 193,733,568 hectares, which produced 1,147,624,938 tons of corn. In Ecuador, according to the National Institute of Agricultural Research (INIAP), the provinces dedicated specially to corn production are Manabí, Loja, Los Ríos and Guayas; in 2018 the total area harvested was 365,334 ha with a total production of 1,324,147 tons of dry corn, which is a great source of work for many Ecuadorian families. The research to be able to execute this titling project was carried out in the San Marcos sector, located in the Santa Rosa canton of El Oro province. Observations were made in the Thunder maize crop to test the response that this crop would have to the application of various doses of nitrogen fertilizer (UREA), establishing a total of 6 treatments with 4 repetitions of each in a randomized block experimental design. There were evaluated variables such as: plants' height in cm, weight of corn vegetative mass of each treatment in kg/ha, it was also carried out a population count with the purpose of checking the quantity of plants that were per treatment as a reference element when carrying out the statistical processing of experimental data and the influence that fractionation had on the variables previously mentioned. The evaluations were carried out in 10 maize plants selected and marked in the 2 central furrows of each plot for the determination of the variables. The results of this research work demonstrate that the response of the corn Thunder cultivar established in the experimental area manifests a difference in the height parameters. Treatment 6 where 120 kg N/ha were applied in a fractioned way, placing 60 kg N/ha at the moment of sowing and the other 60 kg when plants were in the phenological phase of development V5-V6, corn plants in this treatment reached an average height of 189.9 cm and a biomass weight of 8585.83 kg/ha, which was the highest value of this variable. In the biomass weight variable, it was not demonstrated a significant statistical difference, but it was detected a tendency towards the increase of N quantity in the doses, with the exception of treatment 2, which was surpassed by the control. As a result, it was found a proportional relationship between height and biomass, determining that the uniform values responded to the natural conditions of the soil where the experimental work was carried out, which is approximately 20 years old without sowing any crop, being kept in rest, so it is inferred that the soil where the experiment was developed has an excellent fertility.