Stress for flooding and recovery of young banana plants with residue from pseudostem

• Grant number: 19/07676-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2019
• End date: July 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Crop Science
• Principal Investigator: Juliana Domingues Lima
• Grantee: Mariana Passos da Conceição
• Host Institution: Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Registro. Registro , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In the Ribeira Valley, the main banana producing region of the State of São Paulo, banana plants often experience stress due to water supersaturation due to high rainfall, insufficient soil drainage and surface water table. This condition causes reduction of photosynthesis and translocation of carbohydrates, root death, inhibition of pseudostem growth and leaf emission, shoot senescence, and as a consequence a reduction in yield. The pseudostem is an abundant residue after harvesting the banana bunch that can be a source of water, nutrients and organic substances. The present project intends to evaluate the effect of the pseudostem residue on the soil surface, on the growth of seedlings in nursery conditions after flooding, under contrasting environmental temperatures. For this, a test will be carried out with banana tree seedlings cv. 'Nanica' grown in pots, which will be flooded for 72 hours. The design was completely randomized in a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial scheme (two stress periods, absence and presence of flooding, absence and presence of the residue), with six replications. Stress periods will be November, when climatic conditions are favorable for banana and May, when minimal temperatures limit plant growth. A 20 cm portion of the pseudostem will be collected in the field of freshly harvested plant, segmented and placed on the soil of half of the plants. Afterwards, the growth of the plants (root system and aerial part), the chlorophyll and carbohydrate content in the leaves and roots will be evaluated before and after the recovery period, in order to verify if the presence of the residue is beneficial for the resumption of growth of the roots of the plants after stress.