Cowpea behavior with application of phosphorus sources and bacillus subtilis bacteria, in cerrado soils in Tocantins

The culture of Cowpea has great socioeconomic importance in producing regions, generating business and income for the population of these regions. The availability of Phosphorus is one of the limiting factors for crop production, including cowpea.

In the cerrado region, one of the characteristics of the soils is the low availability of phosphorus, which makes large investments necessary in fertilization greatly increasing production costs. Natural phosphate is a alternative to reduce the costs of phosphate fertilization, and also improve agronomic efficiency since it has a residual effect.

The microorganisms Phosphorus solubilizers present themselves as allies in the supply of these elements in absorbable form for vegetables. The Bacillus subtilis genera known for their ability to solubilize these nutrients.

The State of Tocantins, in addition to having agricultural land available for grain production, port with excellent highways that facilitate the flow of these grains, both in harvest or off-season crops. In this way, the objective was to evaluate the behavior of the cowpea cultivar BRS Guariba as a function of sources of phosphorus and different times of application of the bacteria Bacillus subtilis.

The experiment was conducted in a factorial scheme (2x4), with two sources of phosphorus (Formulated NPK 5-25-15 and natural phosphate) and four times of application of the bacteria B. subtilis (Control, sowing, V4 and R6). The experimental design adopted was in randomized blocks with four replications. The agronomic and physiological characteristics of cowpea.

It is expected that there will be significance between the interaction of factors for all characteristics characteristics evaluated, with this interaction of bacteria with the sources of natural or formulated fertilizers, reducing the quantity of products and increased grain productivity.

With the use of this technology, it is expected, also, that the bean plant suffers less environmental stress, effectively higher income, contributing to the investments made by producers of this crop that is so important in Tocantins agriculture.

Manoel Mota dos Santos, Prof. Deputy UFT/D Sc. in Phytotechnics