FONTES NITROGENADAS MODERNAS E SUA CONTRIBUIÇÃO PARA O DESEMPENHO DE DUAS CULTIVARES DE ALFACE

Abstract

Lettuce, the most consumed leaf vegetable in Brazil, is the third in production volume, only behind watermelon and tomatoes, with a production of about 1.5 million tons a year. Lettuce planting occupies an area of approximately 35,000 hectares, both for intensive production and for family farmers. The representativeness of lettuce production is associated with the availability of varieties, both in terms of preferences and modes of consumption of this vegetable by the population. Nitrogen (N) is an essential element for both plants and animals, being, in general, the most demanded nutrient by crops. For lettuce, N is the second most extracted chemical element. In general, the recommended nitrogen fertilization for lettuce is around 100 to 130 kg ha-1. This study carried out a comparison between the lettuce cultivars Lucy Brown and Vanda submitted to the presence of two nitrogen fertilizers at five different concentrations in order to identify the best dose and type of fertilizer in view of the performance of the cultivars phytotechnical components and yield. Based on the data obtained, we verified the best dosage was 75 kg ha-1 of the protected nitrogen source Heringer (H), which presented better performance of the phytotechnical components in both cultivars.