Influencia de la distancia de siembra en la producción de cilantro (<i>coriandrum sativum</i> l.) en la granja santa inés

Abstract

Coriander is a vegetable belonging to the apiaceae family, native to the Eastern Mediterranean. The parts of the plant that are usable are the fruits, leaves and roots, for this reason, it is considered one of the most important species within the vegetables. The dried leaves are a considerable source of vitamin K, as it has both medicinal and culinary properties. At present, coriander is one of the crops of high economic interventions, because it can have a high yield with a good international price. It is of utmost importance to keep in mind the sowing density, since the production level of the crop will depend on it. The research was conducted at the Santa Inés experimental farm located in the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, belonging to the Technical University of Machala; province of El Oro, in order to demonstrate the influence of planting density in the production of cilantro. To evaluate the results in the different sowing distances in morpho-agroproductive parameters, a simple Latin square design was applied, since the sowing densities are manipulated and two uncontrolled factors (slope of the land and soil fertility) that can affect the results are present, for this reason, the blocking technique was applied, so columns and rows were created. The area of the experiment was 64 m2, with a total of 16 experimental units (4 treatments with 4 replications) of 1.2 m2 each experimental unit. The designated treatments were 0.20 x 0.15 m; 0.20 x 0.20 m; 0.20 x 0.25 m and 0.20 x 0.30 m, indicating that each planting distance corresponds to one treatment. The variables measured were: number of leaves per plant, plant height (cm), weight per plant (g) and agricultural yield. An intergroup factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to verify whether or not there were significant statistical differences between planting distances according to the variables evaluated. According to the results obtained, the planting distance 0.20 x 0.15 m showed the highest number of leaves per plant at both times of evaluation, with 13.27 leaves at 35 days after planting and 17.72 leaves at harvest (45 days), compared to the other densities. In the plant height variable, both at 35 days after sowing and at harvest time, the planting distance 0.20 x 0.15 m obtained the highest values with 17.72 and 22.69 cm respectively, in contrast to the other distances. As for the weight per plant, the treatments did not show significant differences among themselves, however, the planting distance 0.20 x 0.30 m, obtained a small advantage with 13.59 g, being superior to the others. The sowing distance 0.20 x 0.15 m, was the one that presented the highest agricultural yield (5708.33 kg ha-1); therefore, it is concluded that the cilantro crop should be sown at this distance, because it achieved a better adaptation to the edaphoclimatic conditions of the experimental area and showed the best results in morpho-agroproductive parameters.