Nitrogen Fertilization and Liming Improves Growth, Production, Gas Exchange and Post-Harvest Quality of Yellow Flower Jambu

Abstract

Jambu is a vegetable, widely consumed in the Brazilian North Region, both in typical foods and medicinal herb. Despite its versatility, there are uncountable challenges in relation to its cultivation, especially with regard to the availability of information on nutritional management, such as the lack of data on the effect of liming associated with the supply of nitrogen (N) on the production performance of the crop. Thus, the effect of nitrogen fertilization and liming on growth, production, physiological responses and post-harvest quality of the yellow-flowered variety jambu was evaluated. The experimental design was randomized in factorial blocks (6 x 2), with five repetitions. The treatments consisted in the combination of six doses of N (0; 60; 90; 120; 150 and 180 kg ha^-1) with and without liming application (0 and 70% V). The variables of growth, production, gas exchange and post-harvest quality of jambu were evaluated. Standardly, there was interaction between N-dose and liming factors for most of the analyzed variables, except for titratable acidity and total soluble solids and titratable acidity ratio. In general, the increasing of N doses combined with liming positively affected growth, production, physiological responses and post-harvest quality, and it was observed that in the 170 kg ha^-1 dose of N higher response was obtained in the biomass accumulation of the aerial part and in the 180 kg ha^-1 dose of N maximum production of inflorescences. Therefore, the use of correctives associated with nitrogen fertilization is recommended to obtain more significant production and quality of jambu.