Peach palm production as a function of spacing and fertilizing conditions during two growing seasons in central amazon

Abstract

The establishment of an agribusiness of heart-of-palm requires regular supply throughout the year. As there is no literature pertaining to heart-of-palm production throughout the year, this paper aimed to distribute the heart-of-palm production under different spacing and fertilization conditions along two consecutive growing seasons. The experimental design was randomized blocks with three replications in a 2×5 factorial arrangement (two spacing conditions: 1×1 and 1×0.5 m; and five fertilizers: chemical, chemical + chicken manure, filter cake,compost and chemical + organic compost. For the harvest of heart-of-palms aminimum height of 1.5 m was determined. We evaluated the amount of stems,collected monthly during the growing seasons 2008/2009 and 2009/2010, from thefirst peach palm attaining the proper height. The outcome shows the producing superiority of 1×0.5 m as compared to 1×1 m spaced stem. In the first year, there was an irregularity in production, showing an early production with treatment chemical + manure fertilizer. In the second year, there was a high stability. The best treatment for production of heart-of-palm in Central Amazon was 1×0.5 m spacing, chemical (225-90-180 kg/ha/y of N-P2O5-K2O), and organic (1/2 L of chicken manure) fertilizers. This fertilizer is great for setting up cultivation of peach palm in the first year, when the plant is growing.