Phenological response of the vegetative stage of creole corn irrigated with treated effluent from cattle slaughterhouse

Abstract

The global shortages of water nowadays has motivated the search for new ways to save this natural resource and in this context the reuse of treated effluents for irrigation has been one of them. In view of this, the objective of the present work is to evaluate the phenological performance of the corn crop, irrigated with different proportions of treated cattle slaughterhouse effluent. Artesian well water mixed with treated effluent was used to compose the different proportions (0, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100%). The experimental setup was done in Randomized Design with 6 treatments and 8 repetitions totaling 48 plots with a border line on all four sides of the experimental area located on Campus II of the Mato Grosso State University (UNEMAT), Barra do Bugres. The analyzed variables of irrigation water were: total solids, pH, electrical conductivity, nitrate, phosphate, chloride, bicarbonate, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, Sodium Adsorption Ratio and Hardness in French Hydrotechnic Degrees. In a 60-day period, the following phenological characteristics of the corn crop were evaluated: plant height, number of leaves and stem diameter. The phenological data collected from the experiment were tabulated, organized and submitted to the normality test and later to the statistical test appropriate for each case. Through statistical models the plant development data of each treatment with wastewater were compared. The results of the water analysis revealed that for the artesian well water only the pH variable was below the ideal range for irrigation and the sodium concentration was not quantified, which made it impossible to calculate the Sodium Adsorption Ratio. For the effluent, only potassium, magnesium and total solids presented concentrations above the desired limits for irrigation. Significant differences were observed among the treatments in relation to phenological data, leading to the conclusion that the proportion of effluent in irrigation has a positive influence on the phenological performance of the plants, and the proportion that led to the best result was with 100% effluent.