Growth of Agave angustifolia Haw. in relation to its nutritional condition

Abstract

Agave angustifolia Haw. plants, which are obtained by asexual propagation (inflorescence bulbils and rhizome suckers), are established in a nursery where they are provided with agronomic management that is considered to include the supply of nutrients, to achieve quality plants in health and vigor that are successfully established in the field. The research was carried out from January 2017 to August 2018, in the nursery of the Technological Institute of the Valley of Oaxaca, located in the Exhacienda de Nazareno, Xoxocotlán, Oaxaca, Mexico, the objective was to evaluate the nutritional contents in foliar tissues and the size of Agave angustifolia plants, in nursery conditions, fertigated at different concentrations of nutrients. For seven months, four groups of plants that were in soil of loamy-sandy texture were applied different types of irrigation: water or nutrient solution (SN) at 50, 75 and 100% of the Steiner formulation, after that time, their growth was evaluated. In leaf samples, the nutritional contents were analyzed, and the plants to which water was applied, SN-50%, SN-75% and SN-100%, had in mg kg-1 of foliar dry matter: 7 225, 10 641, 12 575 and 14 957 of N; 3 017, 5 018, 5 297 and 6 719 of P; 7 827 19 604, 16 220.1 and 18 847 of Mg, accumulated, 282.74, 340.11, 431.98 and 453.05 g of foliar dry matter, as well as 75.01, 77.21, 95.92 and 103.14 g of dry matter in the root, respectively.