Potted gerbera is known world-wide as an ornamental plant; althought there is a reduced volume of information on its cultivation, specially nutrition and fertilization, essential factors for profits in the productive quality. In the present work the content and accumulation of macronutrients was evaluated in four gerbera cultivars under two levels of fertigation. The experiment was carried out in a greenhouse, from May to July, 2006. The experiment was installed in randomized blocks and constituted of a 4x2 factorial scheme, being 4 gerbera cultivars (Cherry, Golden Yellow, Salmon Rose and Orange) and 2 concentrations of nutritive solution (50% and 100%), corresponding to the electrical conductivity of 0,92 and 1,76 dS m-1, during the vegetative period and 1,07 and 2,04 dS m-1, during the reproductive one. The nutrients were applied through manual fertigation, once a day. By the end of the vegetative and reproductive periods, the contents and accumulation of macronutrients were quantified. The nutrients demand differed among the cultivars and the solution concentration presented an important factor in the content and accumulation of N, P, Ca, Mg and S in the plant. The greatest accumulations was registered at the last third of the production cycle, presenting the following order of absortion: K>N>Ca>Mg>P>S (415, 327, 33, 32, 20 mg plant-1).
Gerbera jamesonii; mineral nutrition; nutritional evaluation
