Eficiência do uso e responsividade de cultivares de feijão-caupi ao fósforo

Abstract

Cowpea is one of the main components of human nutrition, cultivated predominantly by small producers. By presenting a short cycle, the economic return occurs very quickly. The present study aimed to identify the productive performance of cowpea cultivars in terms of phosphorus use efficiency and responsiveness. The experimental design used was randomized blocks with four replications, in a 2 x 4 split plot scheme. The plots were composed of two doses of phosphorus: 0 and 84 kg ha-1 of P2O5, applied in the furrow, during sowing and the subplots, consisting of 4 cowpea cultivars. The biometric characteristics of the analyzed plant were number of trefoils, shoot dry mass, plant height, cycle, number of pods per plant, thousand grain mass, grain yield, P utilization efficiency and response efficiency. Low P availability drastically reduced plant height, number of pods per plant and grain yield in all studied cultivars. Cultivar Tumucumaque showed higher thousand-grain mass and grain yield under low phosphorus availability. The Xiquexique cultivar showed higher grain yield associated with a greater response to P application. It is concluded that grain yield and the number of pods per plant in cowpea are greatly influenced by the availability of P in the soil. The Tumucumaque cultivar stands out for its high P utilization efficiency. The Xiquexique cultivar stands out as highly responsive to P application