Growth of yellow passion flower seedlings in saline soil with digested liquid cow dung

Abstract

An experiment was conducted during January to March 2007 in the greenhouse at DSER/CCA/UFPB, Areia - PB, to study the growth of yellow passion fruit seedlings in saline soil treated with digested cattle manure liquid. The soil used was saline with electrical conductivity of 5.5 dS m-1 and exchangeable sodium percentage of 6.8%. The treatments with digested cattle manure liquid (B) consisted of the application of 280 mL plant^-1 of the mixture of organic input diluted in water (A) at levels of 0, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5 and 10.0%, corresponding to mixtures: 4A+0B, 3A+1B, 2A+ 2B, 1A+3B and 0A+4B and the mixture was applied one week before sowing and 30 days after seedling emergence in six replications. The results showed that, regardless of time of application with increase in the percentage of digested liquid cattle manure in the substrate, stimulated plant growth in height, stem diameter, leaf area, length of main root, leaf and root biomass in seedlings of yellow passion fruit. The application of organic input to soil one week before sowing was more efficient to promote plant growth and to reduce the salinity than when applied 30 days after seedling emergence.