Information about the responses of sugar cane ratoon to nitrogen application in harvest without the use of fire are restricted. The objective of this work is to evaluate nitrogen nutrition in sugarcane ratoons in harvest without the use of fire through chemical analysis of soil, foliar diagnosis, biological evaluations - plant height, stalk diameter and number of industrialized stalks - and production of stalks. A field experiment was setup at Santa Terezinha Experimental Farm in Jaboticabal (SP), with sugarcane ratoons cv. SP 79-1011, planted in a dystrophic Rhodic Hapludox with nitrogen doses of: zero; 50; 100; 150 and 200 kg ha-1 of N. The doses were applied after sugarcane harvest in June 2005. During the two cuts of sugarcane ratoon, soil fertility in the layers of 0-20 and 20-40 cm, the plant nutritional condition and the development and production of stalks were evaluated. Nitrogen fertilization of the sugarcane ratoon increased soil acidification only in the superficial layer (0-20), however it didn't raise significantly macro and micronutrients in the leaves, except for N in the second ratoon. The response of the two first sugarcane ratoons in relation tonitrogen application in harvest without burn occurred only in the second cut. The dose of 200 kg ha-1 of N enhanced development of the crop, nutrition of the plant and production of stalks of sugarcane ratoon.
Saccharum officinarum; urea; mineral nutrition; foliar diagnosis; green sugarcane harvest
