Effects of NPK And Sulfur on the Yield and Absorption of Nutrients of Lepidium peruvianum Ch. in Field and Greenhouse

Abstract

Increasing the quality and yields of maca are important goals to meet market demands. The objective of the research was to quantify the extraction of nutrients from the soil and evaluate the effect of three levels of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K) and sulfur (S) on agronomic indicators of maca cultivation under field and greenhouse conditions. The experiment was conducted under the randomized complete block design with four repetitions per treatment. The levels were  240-180-210-60, 160-120-140-40 and 0-0-0-0 NPKS, respectively. Tukey's test was used for the comparison of means. Different indicators of plant growth and development were evaluated, such as plant height, hypocotyl diameter, hypocotyl weight, dry matter percentage and yield. The evaluation of nutrient extraction was evaluated according to the methodology used in the AGROLAB laboratory: Nitrogen: micro kjeldahl method. Phosphorus: Bray–Kurtz colorimetric method.  Potassium: Peech's turbidimetric method. Sulfur: Massoumi's turbidimetric method. Calcium and Magnesium: volumetric method of complexometry. Among the results, significant differences were found between S levels in all the variables evaluated. No statistical differences were found in nutrient extraction due to NPKS doses. It is concluded that higher doses of NPKS increases in the values of height, hypocotyl size, hypocotyl weight and yield, except for dry matter, in maca plants are obtained.