The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the effect of substrates prepared with different proportion of soil and earthworm casting in the seedlings production of papaya. Two experiments were carried out in nursery of seedlings production of Federal University of the Acre - UFAC, both complying with completely randomized design with eleven treatments and ten replications. The treatments represent the mixture of different concentrations (0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 e 100%) of earthworm (Chibui bari) casting and soil, being dystrophic (V = 29%) in the experiment 1 and eutrophic (V = 80%) in the experiment 2. After 60 days of the planting the seeds was evaluated height of the plant and dry weight matter masses of shoot, root and total. It was verified that the addition of increasing doses of earthworm casting in the composition of the substrate resulted in increase of the growth of the plants in experiment 1 and reduction in experiment 2. The results of the experiments indicate that the use of earthworm casting in substrate prepared with soil only contributes for the increase of the growth seedlings of formosa papaya if the chemical condition of this organic material more will be appropriate than of the soil in taking care of the nutrition necessities of the plants. The results of the experiment with dystrophic soil indicate the possibility of use of the earthworm casting in the traditional production of papaya, especially in situations where the soil presents restrictions how much to the chemical condition.
Carica papaya L. Chibui bari; Substrate; Organic fertilization
