Semicured organic compost in nutrition of degraded pasture of Brachiaria decumbens

Abstract

The objetive this study was to evaluate the effect of two doses of two semicured organic composts of distinct composition and mineral nitrogen in the development of Brachiaria decumbens. The two composts were produced previously, resulting of mixture of residues from seeds of Brachiaria with manure of cattle or chicken. The period of composting was 50 days, with  temperature monitoring and evaluation of the carbon/nitrogen. To evaluate the composts, a field experiment was conducted for 40 days, outlined in a randomized block design with four replications. The treatments were two doses of each type of organic compound, one dose of mineral nitrogen and a control. The characteristics evaluated were the production of dry weight and height of plants and the data were subjected to analysis of variance by Tukey test to compare averages. The semicured compounds, produced in 50 days, did not cause phitotoxicity to plants. The two doses of the compost of chicken manure and the compost with the highest dose of cattle manure were the only treatments to provide statistically significant increase of dry weight in relation to the control. There were no significant differences between the fertilizations on the production of dry weight. Nitrogen fertilization was the only one to provide significant increase in plant height compared to the control. The other organic treatments, including the control, were statistically equivalent in the variable height of plants.