Tempo para a ocorrência da resistência a penetração restritiva ao feijoeiro em solo com diferentes estados de compactação

Abstract

Soil compaction and water availability are related to crop performance. Its individual effects are very difficult to be measured and, possibly, they have joint effects in field conditions. In periods of lack of rain the plant water deficit and the soil resistance to root growth are the main factors associated to crop yield losses. How they affect the biological processes in commercial crops is understood, however, when and how intense are questions which are hard to answer. The hypothesis proposed is that the time to a given stress indicator to reach a restrictive state is a measure of the state of compaction and is related with plant response. Values of indicators of penetration resistance, relative leaf hydric potential and relative real evapotranspiration were measured in different states of compaction, with and without irrigation, and related to blackbeans growth and yield components. The time for soil resistance to penetration reaching 2 MPa was different for different levels of compaction and was directly related to grain yield, confirming the hypothesis of this work. Blackbeans grain yield was the variable which better pointed out the compaction effect, whereas leaf area index and plant height, because of its low association with hydric deficit, had lower sensibility to compaction. There was a significant association of time to penetration resistance to reach 2 MPa with plant height and grain yield; however, when plants grew with irrigation in compacted soil, the later was not felt by plants. On the other hand, when compacted soil was not irrigated but chiseled, there was grain yield increase similar to what was gained by irrigation. Thus, the results pointed out that the compaction effects is intensified by hydric deficit, what in the other hand, without hydric deficit, the compaction may have low impact on crop production. The analysis of time for penetration resistance reaching restrictive values may be a promisor strategy and also serve as predictor of soil compaction effects on crop performance.