Soil depth and microrelief in irrigated banana plantation: impacts on mineral nutrition and yield potential

The aim of this research was to verify whether soil depth affects aspects of mineral nutrition and yield potential of irrigated banana plantations. The study was carried out at Apodi Plateau (CE), Brazil, in an area characterized by soil depth variations. The treatments were sites in different microrelief classes (concave, convex and retilinea) with four different soil depths: A) 0.92 m; B) 0.77 m; C) 0.6 5m; D) 0.52 m. The following measures were done: high of mother plant (APM), high of daughter plant (APF), pseudosterm diameter of mother plant (DPPM), weight of fresh (MFF) and dry leaves (MFS), contents of phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), sulphur (S) and sodium (Na) in plant tissue and bunch weight. Data were submitted to ANOVA and to least significant differences (LSD) with 5% of significance. APM and DPPM were higher in A and C, while the lower values were found in the shallow soil (D). Values of MFF and MFS were higher in both sites A and D that also presented larger amount of nutrients in plant leaves. However, higher amount and adequate levels of P in plant leaves were observed in the site A, on which plants presented higher bunch weigth. It showed that effective soil depth and soil microrelief have influence in nutrients uptake, plants growth, and productive potential of banana plants irrigated at Apodi Plateau.