Resumo

OROZCO-ROMERO, José  e  PEREZ-ZAMORA, Octavio. Soil moisture tension and nitrogen fertilization on banana (Musa AAA Simmonds) cv. Gran Enano. Agrociencia [online]. 2006, vol.40, n.2, pp.149-162. ISSN 2521-9766.

Banana (Musa A A A Simmonds) cv Gran Enano is the second most important fruit crop of the State of Colima, where the climate is semiarid and agricultural production requires irrigation. Nitrogen fertilization practices are empirical. This study was conducted to test dosages of N (0 to 300 kg ha−1) and soil moisture tension (10, 25, 45 and 75 kPa) on yield and quality of banana fruits cv Gran Enano during four years. The results showed that bananas respond to the application of N and moisture; the interaction of both inputs was positive in yield and fruit quality. Maximum yields were obtained with 290 to 300 kg N ha−1 and soil moisture tension close to field capacity during the entire crop cycle, but the maximum economic benefit (benefit/cost ratio) was obtained with 25 kPa200 N. Reduction (0.521 Mg ha−1) in yield was linear for every unit (kPa) that moisture tension moved away from 10 kPa. Yield had a high degree of reliability (R2=0.94) with the equation Y=159.12−0.195 X+0.33 N−0.0005 N2−0.001 XN, where Y=banana yield (Mg ha−1), X=soil moisture tension (kPa), N=kg N ha−1. N applied to the soil had no effect on fruit quality, but moisture did, improving with tensions of 30 kPA or lower.

Palavras-chave : Gran Enano; irrigation bananas; semiarid.