Production and quality of Cinnamomum zeylanicum Blume seedlings cultivated in nutrient solution

Abstract

Brazil imports great amounts of C. zeylanicum from different countries, both barks and essential oil, given the absence of commercial cultivation of this spice in the country. Hence, due to the need of studying and indicating adequate mineral fertilizers in the production of C. zeylanicum seedlings, this work intended to investigate the effect of adding different concentrations of the complete nutrient solution in the production of high-quality seedlings with potential for commercial purposes. The experimental design used was completely randomized in the split-plot scheme and ten evaluations. In the plots, we evaluated the effect of the concentrations (T1 - 0%, T2 - 25%; T3 - 50%; T4 - 75%; T5 - 100%) of the nutrient solution during the growth period and in the sub-plots, the evaluation periods was evaluated monthly. Both growth characteristics (height, stem diameter and dry matter of shoots and roots) and quality parameters of the seedlings (Dickson index) was assessed. The nutrient solution at the concentration of 75% provides height and stem diameter growth and increased indices of Dickson quality, shoot dry matter, root dry matter and total dry matter, being suitable for the production of C. zeylanicum seedlings. C. zeylanicum seedlings have low nutrient requirements; thus, the concentration of 100% of the nutrient solution characterizes luxury consumption.