Nutrition, yield and quality of ‘Niagara Rosada’ vine fruits using cattle slurry and plastic cover

Abstract

Plastic cover and organic fertilization for grapevine can bring synergistic benefits in yields and fruit quality. The objective was to characterize and measure the effects of fertilization with cattle slurry in systems without and with plastic cover on plant nutrition, yield and quality of ‘Niagara Rosada’ fruits. Two experiments were carried out and evaluated in contiguous areas, without and with plastic cover, each one using a randomized complete block design with 4 treatments represented by cattle slurry rates of 0, 20, 40 and 60 m3 ha-1, with four replicates. The nutritional status of grapevines was not affected by cattle slurry application without plastic cover in plants growing on fertile sandy soil. Plastic cover provides better nutrition ofprimary macronutrients and higher yield and fruit quality, even without the use of manure. Without plastic cover, cattle slurry rates above 20 m3 ha-1 and below 60 m3 ha-1 were able to balance phosphate and potassium nutrition in these systems, increasing fruit yield by 31% up to 32 m3 ha-1, respectively. However, this increment represented 64% of the average yield of fruits obtained with plastic cover without organic fertilization. Thus, the use of plastic cover on grapevine represents a conservationist soil fertility management, adding sustainability and increasing fruit yield and quality.

Biofertilizers in horticultural crops

“…The bovine biofertilizer, among other organic inputs, has been used for nutritional supplementation to the horticultural demands. In fruit species, the application is performed via leaf spraying (Marini, 2008), soil (Mesquita et al, 2010;Silva et al, 2016a;Tullio et al, 2018), and also via fertigation (Santana et al, 2016). In vegetable crops, the application directly on the soil is predominant (Nileemas & Sreenivasa, 2011;Viana et al, 2013;Borges et al, 2014), as well as on the leaves (Oliveira et al, 2014).…”

“…(2008) L. and, therefore, constitute an alternative to the partial and/or total replacement of the synthetic commercial fertilizers (Marini, 2008;Mesquita et al, 2010;Silva et al, 2018). In spite of the high leaf contents of macronutrients in some crops, such as in P. edulis Freire et al, 2013), A. comosus , and V. labrusca (Tullio et al, 2018), the biofertilizer does not replace the synthetic mineral fertilizers.…”