Distribuição espacial do sistema radicular de plantas de pinhão manso

Abstract

Brazilian government has supported the production of biodiesel in the country, through of its blend with diesel. So, for that there is no competition with the oil industry of food, oilseeds new species has been investigated as alternative sources for oil production. Among these, nut plant (Jatropha curcas L.) has great potential production, mainly by family farmers. However, are rare technical information about this crop, including the root system distribution. Roots characteristics are of high importance to work with plants in the field, especially to irrigation and fertilization management. So, aimed to evaluate the distribution of the root system of nut plants in soil and climatic conditions of the Brazilian Savanna "Cerrado". Three plants were used in 17-month-old plants and three with 36-month old, cultivated in Goiânia-GO and Porangatu-GO, respectively. In both experiments the plants were spaced 3 x 2 m, and soil cultivation was a Hapludox. For the evaluations were sampled volumes of soil by monolith method, at five depths: 0.0 to 0.30, 0.30 to 0.60, 0.60 to 0.90, 0.90 to 1.20 and 1.2 to 1.5 m, and also the five distances from the stem: 0.0 to 0.25, 0.25 to 0.50, 0.50 to 0.75, 0.75 to 1.0 and 1.0 to 1.25 m. The results showed that 80% of the roots are at 0.60 m of depth and at 0.75 m horizontal distance from the trunk in young plants, and 1.0 m depth and 1.0 m horizontal distance in adult plants.