Keywords
diluted fertilization
granulated fertilization
bio-stimulants
productivity
economic profit
efficient use of nutrients
Categories
How to Cite
Abstract
The consumption of sweet corn is very important in some coastal areas from the Equator . The goal of the study was to analyze the effectiveness of liquid fertilization and biostimulation on the yield and profitability of the INIAP 543 – QPM sweet corn (choclo). The work was carried out during two different rainy seasons in January-2021 and May-2022, in the locations of El Cady in Portoviejo, Danzarín in Rocafuerte, and El Limón in Bolívar, located at coordinates 1°07’14.6”S - 80°24’39.7”W, 0°54’42.0”S - 80°24’17.4”W, and 0°49’49.1”S - 80°10’48.6”W, respectively. The evaluated treatments were liquid fertilization + bio-stimulation (LF + BIO), granular fertilization + bio-stimulation (GF + BIO), granular fertilization (GF), and a control treatment without fertilization or bio-stimulation. A completely randomized block design was used, with four treatments and five replications. Corn ear yield (CEY ), agronomic nitrogen efficiency (ANE), and economic profitability were recorded. The treatments had a significant influence (p<0.05) on CEY and ANE in both planting seasons and in the three locations evaluated. The LF + BIO and FG + BIO treatments achieved higher CEY with averages of 9.00 and 8.43 t ha-1, with respect to the GF and control treatments with 7.76 and 3.26 t ha-1, respectively. Similarly, on average, ANE was higher in the LF + BIO and GF + BIO treatments with 38.26 and 34.47 kg of CEY kg-1 of N applied, in contrast to the FG treatment that achieved an average ANE of 30.01 of CEY kg-1 of N applied. On the other hand, LF + BIO achieved greater increases in CEY and ANE with respect to GF + BIO. Economic profitability averaged USD$0.78 and USD$0.73 per each dollar invested for the LF + BIO and GF + BIO treatments, respectively, in comparison to the profitability of the GF and control treatments, which achieved a profit of USD$0.66 and USD$0.42 per each dollar invested. The results obtained allow us to conclude that under rainfall conditions, surface soil moisture depends on water precipitation and therefore does not guarantee a permanent field capacity in the soil. In such conditions, edaphic fertilization applied in a diluted manner can be more efficient and convenient than granulated fertilization applied in a superficial band. In addition, under rainfall conditions, biostimulation is a technology that contributes to boost the edaphic fertilization of sweet corn, and its implementation is economically viable.
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