Phytosociological Survey and Weed Interference in Eggplants Cultivation1

Abstract

-Eggplants are vegetables of great importance in the South and Southeast regions of Brazil, which are subject to interference from weeds. In order to collaborate with weed management in this vegetable, this study was carried out to determine the periods of weed interference in growing eggplants. The study was conducted in the Brazilian municipality of Jaboticabal, SP, at the Faculty of Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences, UNESP [Universidade Estadual Paulista "Júlio de Mesquita Filho" (São Paulo State University)], in the period from February to July 2013. The experiment was arranged in a randomized block design with 22 treatments, three replications divided in 11 periods of coexistence and weed control with eggplants: 14, 28, 42, 56, 70, 84, 98, 112, 126, 140 and 154 days after transplanting (DAT). In each treatment, a phytosociological study was carried out to identify the important species of weeds in eggplant crops. The main weeds were Eleusine indica, Nicandra physaloides, Portulaca oleracea and Cyperus rotundus due to their high relative importance. The interference of these weeds caused losses of up to 96% to the standard commercial fruit yield. The period before interference was 6 DAT and the total period of interference was 102 DAT. Therefore, it is concluded that after the initial six days after transplanting eggplants, the crop should be free of weeds within the next 96 days.Keywords: Solanum melongena, competition, productivity, weed community. Nápoli: 14, 28, 42, 56, 70, 84, 98, 112, 126, 140 Palavras-chave: Solanum melongena, competição, produtividade, comunidade infestante. RESUMO -A berinjela é uma hortaliça de grande importância nas regiões Sul e Sudeste e, que está sujeita a interferências das plantas daninhas. Com o intuito de colaborar com o manejo das plantas daninhas nessa hortaliça, objetivou-se determinar os períodos de interferência das plantas daninhas no cultivo de berinjela Nápoli. O estudo foi realizado no município de Jaboticabal, SP, na Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias da UNESP, no período de fevereiro a julho de 2013, no delineamento em blocos ao acaso com 22 tratamentos e três repetições, divididos em 11 períodos de convivência e de controle das plantas daninhas com a berinjela

Weed Interference on the Accumulation of Dry Mass and Macronutrients of Eggplant ‘Nápoli’

“…E. indica, stand out for using more efficiently high temperatures and luminosity (Christin et al, 2014;Venâncio et al, 2014), conferring higher photosynthetic rates due to the wide spacing between the planting lines and the long period of time for shading the interrows by eggplant crop. However, large and longercycle plants, such as N. physaloides, tend to dominate the field in more advanced stages of the cycle, as observed by Marques et al (2016Marques et al ( , 2017 and other authors.…”

“…These authors observed that E. indica was more important at the beginning of the crop cycle due mainly to the plant density, while N. physaloides, a species with slower initial growth and longer cycle, was more important at the end of the cycle due to the accumulation of biomass. Both species E. indica and N. physaloides are common in fields of vegetables (Marques et al, 2016), as observed in other crops, such as okra, tomato, beet etc. Therefore, at the beginning of the cycle, the C4 weeds, e.g.…”

“…In studies carried out in the same field, E. indica, N. physaloides (Marques et al, 2016(Marques et al, , 2017 and A. tenella (Marques et al, 2017) were also the most important weeds of the weed community that occurred in the eggplant crop. These authors observed that E. indica was more important at the beginning of the crop cycle due mainly to the plant density, while N. physaloides, a species with slower initial growth and longer cycle, was more important at the end of the cycle due to the accumulation of biomass.…”

“…Weeds can reduce eggplant yield by more than 95% (Aramendiz-Tatis et al, 2010;Marques et al, 2016) due to direct interference. Reduction in the quality of fruits may also be found (Aramendiz-Tatis et al, 2010).…”

“…Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is a vegetable of the family Solanaceae (Weber et al, 2010), showing high economic importance for the State of São Paulo (Marques et al, 2016(Marques et al, , 2017, in Brazil. The cultivation of eggplant has increased due to the medicinal properties of its fruits, mainly in the reduction of cholesterol levels and blood pressure, and also to peculiar characteristics used in herbal diets with relevant medicinal substances (Montemor and Souza, 2009;Oliveira et al, 2014).…”