EFFECTS OF PHOSPHORUS DOSES IN INITIAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CASTOR BEAN

The castor bean is a demanding culture in fertility of the soil, especially of phosphorus, that is one of the nutrients more limitation the agricultural production. This experiment was carried with the objective of evaluating the answer of the castor bean during her initial development to different phosphorus doses. The used design was it entirely randomized, with five treatments and three repetitions, where the treatments consisted of different phosphorus doses (0, 3, 6, 9, 13 e 15 g planta(-1)). The plants were collected at 65 days after sowing for evaluation. The evaluated characteristics were: the number of leaves, leaf area, height, stem diameter, matter dries of the aerial part, of the system roots and total. The castor bean showed response to phosphate fertilizer in all characteristics evaluated, presenting consider increasing the parameters of growth. The best results were found with a dose of 9 g planta(-1) P.