Abstract

This study aimed at estimating the wood ash as a corrective and fertilizer in the safflower crop. This study was done with respect to the development, growth, and production of safflower in response to the wood ash doses applied to Oxisol of the Brazilian Cerrado biome. Adopting the completely randomized design and using five wood ash doses (0, 8, 16, 24, 32 g dm^-3) and six replicates, the experiments were performed under greenhouse conditions. Each experimental unit included a 2 dm³ pot, filled with soil that had been incubated earlier for 30 days. The variables studied included soil pH, plant height (cm), stem diameter (mm), number of leaves (plant^-1), SPAD index, internal and external diameters of the chapters (cm), number of chapters (plant^-1), chapters dry mass (g pot^-1), shoot dry mass (g pot^-1), volume (cm³ pot^-1) and root dry mass (g pot^-1) Analysis of variance and subsequent regression test were performed for all the data using SISVAR software, at 5% probability for both. The variables internal and external diameter of the chapters and root volume showed no significant differences. The soil pH revealed a significant effect of the wood ash application tending towards linearity, as did the other vegetative variables of plant height, stem diameter, number of leaves and SPAD index. The productive constituents exhibited improved development when the wood ash was applied to the soil in doses of around 24 g dm^-3 or more.

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