Evaluation of three alternatives of fertigation in the establishment of platain crop (musa paradisiaca/harton cv) in the Yopal, Casanare

Abstract

Currently, in agriculture it is necessary to implement methods of rational handling of water resource. Plantain cultivation required a high content of water and fertilizer. Fertigation is an alternative to supplying hydric requirements and at the same time fertilizing the plant. The region of Colombia’s eastern plains is characterized by clay loam soils, little permeability and slow infiltration velocity. This makes the arrangement of fertilizers appear on the surface of the land thus making it difficult to move to the root zone. In the present research, three fertigation alternatives (T1: subterranean, T2: drip, T3: drench) were evaluated at the establishment stage. An experimental batch composed of 30 experimental units was established for each treatment. The Readily Available Water RAW was obtained taking into account the Permanent Wilt Point (PMP), Field Capacity (CC), Root Depth (RD) and apparent density (DA). The requirement of fertilization was calculated from soil analysis. The response variables were the number of leaves, diameter of the stem and height and weight of the plant. For the ANOVA, a completely randomized design-CRD was used and data were analyzed by using an INFOSTAT LSD Fisher test with a p value of 0.05. Significant differences between the treatments were found, where the treatment of subterranean fertigation evidenced bigger values in relation to the follow-up variables. In this work, one observed that the alternative of subterranean fertigation could be an affordable solution for an efficient handling of water and fertilization in the cultivation of plantains due to the alternative arrangements of local water and nutrients for the plant.