Salinity and nitrogen doses in the production and oil content of castor bean

Abstract

The proper management of irrigation and mineral nutrition is critical to the success of crops, especially crops grown under salt stress conditions. The objective of this study was to evaluate the production and oil content of castor plants (Ricinus communis L.) irrigated with brackish water with different salinity levels (0.6, 1.6, 2.6, 3.6, and 4.6 dS m-1) and grown under different nitrogen levels (50, 75, 100, 125, and 150 mg of N kg-1 soil). These treatments were arranged in a completely randomized block design with a 5 ? 5 factorial scheme and three repetitions, totaling 75 experimental units. The interaction effect between salinity levels and nitrogen levels affected fruit weight per plant and oil content, and irrigation with brackish water with an electrical conductivity starting at 0.6 dS m-1 reduced the number of racemes per plant, number of fruits, and the weight of fruits and seeds.

Untitled

“…Based on the results obtained by Severino et al (2017), there is generally no association between row spacing and individual productivity of castor plants in the temperate growing zone, whereas, in conditions of unstable humidity, this is important. Therewith, planting crops closer limits the availability of life factors, especially moisture, so induced water stress can cause a decrease in the mass of seeds from the plant, both due to a decrease in the number of fruits per plant and due to a decrease in the mass of 1000 seeds (Alves et al, 2019;Mazurenko et al, 2020).…”