CROP COEFFICIENT, DRY MATTER PARTITION AND SEEDLINGS QUALITY OF Hymenaea courbaril L. IN CONTAINERS SIZES UNDER WATER DEFICIT IRRIGATION1

Abstract

Native species seedlings are commonly used in the degraded areas reforestation, riparian forests and legal reserve. Among the factors that influence the seedlings quality, are the container size and the substrate water availability. Thus, the objective of this paper was to evaluate Hymenaea courbaril L. seedlings response in function of irrigation levels and container sizes. The experiment was carried out in greenhouse, in randomized blocks design, with three replications in split plots, in 2 x 5 scheme. Rigid pots of 3.1 L and stiff plastic tubes of 4.0 L were used in the plots, while irrigation levels equals to 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% of the maximum evapotranspiration (ETm) were used in the subplots. The stiff plastic tube provided larger ETm and increased seedlings quality and, consequently, larger crop coefficient (Kc) in comparison with rigid pot, in the phase from 80 to 200 days after the sowing (DAS). The Kc of the seedlings in citrovase varired from 0.54 to 1.12, of the planting at 200 DAS, according the Penman-Monteith methodology. Irrigation levels between ETm 86.8% and 100% propitiated larger seedlings quality index. To the 200 DAS, the roots dry matter was larger than the leaves dry matter, unlike the initial phases.