SUGARCANE MPB PRODUCTION UNDER IRRIGATION FREQUENCIES AT DIFFERENT SEEDLING AGES

Abstract

Sugarcane production in Brazil, estimated for the 2019/20 harvest, is 615.98 million tons, with Goiás being the second state with the highest production. According to estimates, the areas destined for seedlings in the sugar-alcohol sector are representative, having been 48 thousand hectares in the 2018/2019 harvest. Sugarcane is the crop with the largest irrigated area in the country. Studies report that the frequency and depth of irrigation should vary with the periods of sugarcane growth. The cultivation of sugarcane from seedlings has allowed the reduction of the volume spent on stalks, as it provides a high multiplication rate. Thus, the present study aims to clarify some of the points of interference in the development of sugarcane, seeking to evaluate the quality characteristics of pre-sprouted seedlings from two irrigation frequencies, verifying the nursery age with the best performances for seedling production and the interference of the parts of the stem from which the buds are extracted for production.  In the pre-trial, 16 varieties were planted at the Federal Institute of Goiás-Campus Ceres-Goiás   . In the second stage, the experiments were installed in a protected environment, in the city of Goianésia, on February 19, 2019, and evaluated in the initial phase for 21 days, with the evaluations made at three-day intervals and validation on March 19, 2019. The following data are from the original experiment.  The variety determined was CTC 4. The experimental design for the experiment was DBC in 3x2 split-plots, with 4 replications, irrigation frequency (1x and 2x), with three ages - 14 months, 10 months and 6 months. All data were analyzed using the SISVAR software. Irrigation frequencies influenced the initial germination evaluations. The age of the propagative material at 6 months is 19.98% higher than the 10-month-old buds and 12.88% higher than the 14-month-old ones. As for the position of the buds in the stalk. As for the Dickson quality index (DQI), seedlings from younger nurseries were superior to the others.