The objective in this work was to evaluate the effects of lime and zinc levels, as well as their interaction on development in castor bean plants. The hypothesis of this work is that the lime levels reduce the zinc availability in soil for the plant. The experiment was carried out under greenhouse conditions without temperature control, in pots with 17 dm³ of 'dystrophic Red Latosol', medium texture. The statistical design was of randomized blocks, in a 3 x 5 factorial scheme, with four replicates. The treatments consisted of liming to reach three basis saturations: 40, 60 and 80%, combined with five zinc levels: 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0 and 8.0 mg dm-3. Only one plant per pot was grown up to 174 days after emergence (first mature raceme), at which point the morphologic and production components of plants were evaluated. Higher lime levels resulted in greater number of seeds per plant and dry matter of seeds per plant. There was interaction of basis saturation and zinc in plant height, in dry matter of root and in length of raceme (masculine part and total). However, none of these increases reflected a significant difference in weight of 100 castor bean seeds.
Ricinus communis L.; castor bean; acidity corrective; micronutrient
