Crescimento e composição do óleo essencial de mudas de Eucalyptus globulus (Labill) adubadas com nitrogênio e potássio

Abstract

The research was conducted at Instituto de Ciências Agrárias (ICA- UFMG), with the objective to evalua-te the effect of nitrogen and potassium fertilization on the initial growth of seedlings and in composition of the essential oil of Eucalyptus globulus. The treatments corresponded the application of nitrogen (N) (0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0 g dm- 3) and two forms of potassium application (K), in coverage and in the preparation of the substrate, and control, conducted in a completely randomized design in a factorial 2×5+1 with 12 replications. Were evaluated stem diameter, height, number of leaves and the chemical composition of the essential oil. The identification and relative abundance of the essential oil compounds were made from chromatographic analysis. The data were submitted to variance analysis and Dunnett test (p <0.05) and for the doses of N were adjusted regression equations. The stem diameter and height showed a quadratic response to the appli-cation of N, as with K in the substrate as in coverage. In the essential oil were detected 17 compounds, being that the plants fertilized with N and K showed a higher number of compounds compared to the control. The fertilization influenced both the initial growth of seedlings as the essential oil composition.