EFFECTS OF NITROGEN AND SILICON ON WATER USE EFFICIENCY OF SUGARCANE (Saccharum spp.)

Abstract

Silicon (Si) is not considered an essential element for plant growth and development. However, in many agricultural soils, are deficient in plant-available Si, making Si supplementation necessary. We assessed the effect of silicon and nitrogen fertilization on the water use efficiency (WUE) of sugarcane, planted on a soil classified as Typic Hapludox (Eutrophic Red Latosol in Brazil), the plants were grown within 11 L pots in greenhouse at the Department of Biosystems Engineering, ESALQ/USP, Brazil. The experimental design was completely randomized with 4 blocks with 8 treatments in a factorial scheme (2 x 3)+ 2, made up by two levels of nitrogen (N) (0,6 and 0,9 g pot -1 ) and three levels of Si (5, 10 and 15 g pot -1 ). The results were submitted to analysis of variance by the Test F and the differences between the treatments were compared by at 5% of significance. Our results indicate that high levels of N combined with Si do not improve the efficiency of water use in sugarcane.KEYWORDS: ammonium, cement, sugarcane. EFEITO DO NITROGÊNIO E DO SILÍCIO SOBRE