Determinación del efecto de la aplicación de fertilizantes nitrogenados encapsulados sobre el sistema radicular de banano.

Abstract

The banana is considered one of the main export products, thus becoming of great economic importance for the Ecuadorian agricultural sector for the income it generates, it is also very significant in the productive and social field, which means 2% of the overall GDP and about 35% of the agricultural GDP where approximately 1 million families are employed. Fertilizers in agriculture play an important role since they supply the nutrients required by crops and can improve the low fertility of overexploited soils. Encapsulated fertilizers allow nutrients to be applied locally around the root system, thus avoiding problems associated with osmotic pressure in the fertilizer. For the release of nutrients, water enters and dissolves the nutrients found in the granule, which is progressively released depending on the temperature and humidity of the soil; this implies that the release of nutrients is carried out from the inside to the outside of the coated granule; the duration of the release is determined by the thickness of the granule coating. The present research was carried out at the Santa Inés experimental farm, belonging to the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of the Technical University of Machala, province of El Oro, Ecuador, with the objective of comparing the effect of direct and encapsulated application of nitrogen fertilizers on the root system of banana to establish the effects on the growth of the banana plant return. The experiment employed a randomized block design with nine treatments and a control. T01=Ammonium nitrate (40 g); T2=Ammonium nitrate (40 g) + BIOCHAR (10 g); T3=Potassium nitrate (40 g); T4=Potassium nitrate (40 g) + BIOCARBON (10 g); T5=Test; TR6=UREA (40 g) +BIOCHAR (10 g); T7=Ammonium Nitrate (40 g) + Zeolite (10 g); T8=Potassium Nitrate (40 g) + Zeolite (10 g); T9=UREA (40 g); T10=UREA (40 g) + Zeolite (10 g). The data of the variables obtained were analyzed with SPSS software version 22, using a one-factor ANOVA and the Tukey test at 0.05 significance. The results obtained indicate that the treatment whose composition is Potassium Nitrate (40 g) + Zeolite (10 g) was the most significant in the reduction of root burn, decreasing by 50.5%, and obtaining the best return height with a mean of 141 cm, as opposed to the other treatments. Demonstrating that the association of KNO3 and ZEOLITE is an alternative for the improvement of the quality of the root system and the vegetative development of the banana since the encapsulated fertilizers allow the nutrients to be applied in a localized way around the root system releasing them slowly, thus helping the root not to suffer burns due to the leaching and evaporation of the salts that the nitrogen fertilizers have, so that the banana plant can better absorb the nutrients found in the soil.