Nutritional deficiency and growth of <i>Physalis peruviana</i> L.

Abstract

The Physalis peruvianaL. cultivation, popularly known as ‘golden berry’, has a great economic potential and is being gradually incorporated into the crops of the small fruits group in Brazil. However, there is still a need to improve management practices, especially in matters relating to the nutritional needs such as the establishment of visual diagnosis parameters of nutritionaldeficiencies, which would make it possible to achieve higher productivities. This study aimed to describe the visual symptoms of nutritional deficiencies and evaluate the effect of the omission of nutrients on the growth and nutrition of goldenberry. Theexperiments were conducted in a greenhouse of the Department of Soil Science of the Universidade Federal de Lavras, Lavras, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The experimental design was completely randomized with three replications and eight treatments in nutrient solution based on Hoagland and Arnon solution with the following treatments: individual omission of Ca, Mg, B, Zn, Mn, Fe and multiple omissions for CaB and MgMn. This study evaluated the number of leaves; plant height; stem diameter; dry matter weight of aerial parts; dry matter weight of roots; total dry matter weight; dry matter weight aerial:rootsratio; and the visual diagnosis of nutritional deficiencies. The observations of the nutritional deficiencies showed typical symptoms, with exception of the omission of Zn that did not show any deficiency symptom. The omissions of Fe and CaB were the most limiting for the vegetative growth of goldenberry.