Abstract

AREVALO, Luis A; ALEGRE, Julio C  and  FASABI, Raúl. Efecto del fósforo sobre el establecimiento del centrosema macrocarpum benth dentro de una plantación de Pijuayo (bactris gasipaes h.b.k.) en un ultisol del trópico húmedo.. Ecol. apl. [online]. 2003, vol.2, n.1, pp.93-97. ISSN 1726-2216.

A leguminous forage centrosema (Centrosema macrocarpum) was planted as a cover crop in a 4 year peach palm plantation (Bactris gasipaes K.) at different increasing rates of phosphorous (P) in order to determine the adequate doses needed to get rapid cover establishment for future use as a silvopastoral system. Four rates of P as rock phosphate were tested: 0, 20 40 and 80 kg/ha. This fertilizer was uniformly sprayed before planting the cover crop at the beginning of the experiment. A randomized complete block design was used to find the response to the different fertilizer rates. The initial levels of soil P were low and increased significantly as a function of the increasing levels of applied P. Similar trends were observed in the tissue of centrosema and peach palm. There was a good P accumulation in the centrosema biomass and nutrient cycling of the soil. The establishment and production of centrosema biomass increased after 150 days of planting in all treatments but the development of centrosema with the rates of 20 kg/ha covered the soil faster and presented greater biomass production than the others. Because there were non significant differences between the establishment rates of P, it is recommended to apply only 20 kg/ha during centrosema establishment. 

Keywords : Silvopastoral; peach palm; centrosema; rock phosphate; acid soils.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )