Organic compost on Piatã grass fertigation

The use of agro-industrial waste as fertilizer can be a recycling alternative considering a more suitable destination and a decrease on potential environmental impacts. The purpose of the present study was therefore to verify the influence of different doses of organic compost on the morphogenetic and structural characteristics of Piat? grass grown on two types of latosol. The trial was conducted on a completely randomized design in a 4 x 2 factorial consisted on four doses of organic fertilizer (0, 100, 200, and 300 kg equivalent N ha^-1), and two types of soil (dystroferric Red Latosol and dystrophic Red) with three replications each treatment (pots). To determine the average cut for data comparison, it was performed four cuts. The variables collected were: phyllochron, leaf appearance rate (LAR) and number of green leaves (NGL). For all the characteristics analyzed, the dystrophic Red Latosol presented superior values (P < 0.05) over the dystroferric Red Latosol. The organic compost did not influence the morphogenetic and structural characteristics of the plant growth on dystrophic Red Latosol; however, the dystroferric Red Latosol showed statistical differences (P < 0.05) in all the studied variables. The lowest phyllochron (10.1) was found in the dose of 300 kg equivalent N ha^-1 for the dystroferric Red Latosol. In the dystrophic Red Latosol, the control treatment (0 kg equivalent N ha^-1) presented the lowest phyllochron 15.87. Leaf appearance rate (LAR), the opposite of phyllochron, showed a big increase in the dose of 300 kg equivalent N ha^-1 for dystroferric Red Latosol. LAR showed 0.06 leaves tiller^-1 in the lowest dose (no fertilizer) starting the appearance of leaves in the dose of 300 kg equivalent N ha^-1 (0.08 leaves tiller^-1). Moreover, NGL presented 3.83 leaves tiller^-1 increasing from the lowest dose (no fertilizer) to 5.19 leaves tiller^-1 to the maximum dose of 213 kg equivalent N ha^-1. After all, organic compost is not recommended as fertilizer in dystrophic Red Latosol, but it is recommended to dystroferric Red Latosol in the doses of 213 to 300 kg N ha^-1.