ABSTRACT
Seedlings low quality can result due to problems in irrigation and/or nutrition of seedlings in their nursery phase. Regarding irrigation, problems can arise related to low uniformity of water application or its management, leading to lack or excess of water. While the excess can leach nutrients, the deficit can affect plant growth. Thus, this work had as objective to evaluate irrigation efficiency of a microsprinkler irrigation system at a forest native species nursery and also at sub-irrigation of forest native species being raised in recipient tubes The microsplinkler irrigation efficiency evaluation was performed in a native forest nursery at Itutinga - MG city, held in completely randomized design in split plots scheme, with the irrigation equipment on the plot (three levels: MA-20, Rondo and Inverted Rotor Spray) and three forest species on subplot. For efficiency evaluation in large tubes, the categories of subplot were: Araucaria angustifolia (Bert.) O. Ktze., Syagrus romanzoffiana (Cham.) Glassman and Joannesia princeps Vell. In small tubes, the three levels of subplots were the species: Guazuma ulmifolia Lam., Anadenanthera macrocarpa Benth. and Aspidosperma polyneuron Muell. The sub-irrigation efficiency evaluation was conducted in a greenhouse located at UFLA, in two sub-irrigation tanks with three replications, through calculation of uniformity coefficients for each sub-irrigated species, done in three replications. The largest application efficiency was obtained for the MA-20 emitter. There were no significant differences between the application efficiency of the emitters relative to the cultivated species, in both tube sizes. The efficiency in 300 cm³ tubes irrigation tank was 90.42%, while for 110 cm³ tubes it was 92.17%. Sub-irrigation tanks proved to be an interesting alternative for irrigation of the tested forest species seedlings, with high efficiency for both tubes sizes.
Keywords:
nursery; sub-irrigation; microsplinkler