Fertilizer placement and forms of application and sugarcane response

Abstract

The Best Agricultural Practices in sugarcane production contemplate fertilizer use, but many producers apply it at the beginning of the rains on soil surface. In order to evaluate the effect of fertilizer placement and fertilization moment, a research was carried with the first ratoon at Rancho Rincón de los Toros, Veracruz, Mexico. Seven treatments in random blocks design and four replications were studied: a) four treatments with application of 600 kg ha^-1 of the 20-05-25 (N, P₂O5, K₂O) complete formula after the harvest of plant cane, at the beginning of the rains and, at both times, incorporated and soil surface; b) two treatments with urea at rate of  200 kg ha^-1 additional to the incorporated and soil surface application after the harvest; c) a control without fertilizer. The incorporated fertilizer produced at 8 months a population of 14,5 stems m^-1, 1,4 stems m^-1 more than the soil surface fertilization and the yield was 68,89 Mg ha^-1; while with the applied on the soil surface was 59,44 Mg ha^-1, reaching an increase of 9,46 Mg ha^-1. Soil surface fertilization had no effect neither on the stems population nor on the cane yield. The stems population at eight months old was directly related to the cane yield obtained at harvest. Additional urea did not increase yields beyond those achieved with a single application of fertilizer, but increased the amount of N to produce 1 Mg of cane, ranging from 3,2 kg to 3,4 kg.