FERTILIZATION AND ORDER OF RACEME IN THE AGRICULTURE PERFORMANCE OF CASTOR BEAN BRS NORDESTINA

Castor produces racemes primary, secondary, tertiary, among others, whose contributions to the overall productivity differ. In this context, the aim was to evaluate the agronomic characteristics and to determine the influence of the order of racemes and nutrient sources on yield of castor bean. Thus, under field conditions, in the municipality of Remigio, Paraiba State, an experiment with BRS Nordestina cultivar was carried out in randomized blocks design arranged in 5 (different sources of organic manure: without organic manure, compost, compost enriched with rock powders and manure and mineral complete) x 4 (orders of racemes primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary) factorial experiment, with four replications. During the experiment, plant height and insertion of racemes were evaluated, length and number of racemes, early blooming and maturation of racemes. After harvesting, the following variables were determined: mass of racemes, number of grains per plant, yield, weight of hundred grains, length and width of the grains and the contribution of different orders of racemes in total yield. The growth of castor bean increased with the fertilizing, especially for organic compounds. The first inflorescences were emitted in castor bean plants fertilized organically. The mass of racemes, the number of grains per plant and productivity were higher in racemes of secondary and tertiary orders. The length and width of the grains was higher in primary racemes. The highest yields were obtained with the use of organic sources.