Soluções nutritivas na fertirrigação de Phalaenopsis utilizando o sistema de cultivo ‘Nutripool’

Abstract

Phalaenopsis is the main genus cultivated for the production of potted flowers in Brazil, with a rapidly expanding market that increasingly seeks technological solutions aimed at productivity and sustainability. This study aimed to evaluate the viability of the stationary fertigation system called Nutripool for the production of potted Phalaenopsis, in addition to analyzing the development of the plants and the composition of the most appropriate nutrient solution. The experiment consisted of 8 treatments, 6 in the Nutripool system, divided into 3 nutrient solutions under two different ECs (1.2 mS.cm-1 and 1.0 mS.cm-1) in a 3X2 factorial scheme, in addition to an additional treatment with controlled-release fertilizer and a control treatment of conventional localized fertigation. The vegetative and reproductive development, as well as the physiological indicators of the plants in each treatment, were evaluated. In addition, the interaction of the nutrient solutions in the system was analyzed, with measurements of EC, pH and solution volume. The results showed that all treatments provided similar vegetative development for Phalaenopsis. Regarding the chlorophyll a and b content, the PP solution presented statistically higher values than the S4 solution, while the AC solution did not differ from the others. In the analysis of chlorophyll a fluorescence, no reduction in the efficiency of photosystem II was observed in the treatments analyzed. For flowering, the treatments PP 1.0, AC 1.2, AC 1.0, S4 1.2, FLC presented the best results, corresponding to the performance observed in the control (FC). In the analysis of the interaction of the nutrient solution, it was observed that the Nutripool system promoted an increase in EC and an acidification in the volume of nutrient solution deposited, mainly due to the physiology of the plant, but also due to the nature of the fertilizers. Furthermore, it was observed that the system demonstrated efficiency in reducing water and fertilizer consumption, presenting an average reduction of 58.33% in the volume of nutrient solution consumed by the Nutripool system, compared to micro-sprinkler irrigation, which is widely used in commercial production. It was therefore concluded that the Nutripool system has great potential as an alternative to the micro-sprinkler fertigation system, offering similar performance in plant development combined with a drastic reduction in water and fertilizer consumption. It was also concluded that, among the nutrient solutions evaluated, the AC 1.0 treatment solution was the one that presented the best results, exhibiting the same performance as the control treatment combined with lower fertilizer consumption compared to the others, allowing an even more efficient and sustainable use of the Nutripool system for Phalaenopsis production.