Effect of the combination of biostimulants on the agronomic efficiency of corn plants

Abstract

The cultivation of Zea mays L. (corn) is considered one of the main sources of human and animal food, which has required the adoption of increasingly sustainable and efficient agronomic techniques, including biostimulants inoculated via seminiferous, as well as applied via foliar. Our experimental proposal tested the scientific hypothesis if corn plants treated with biostimulants inoculated via seminiferous with diazotrophic nitrifying bacteria Azospirillum strain Sp7 (0.0 and 12.5 mL.kg^-1), as well as plant growth regulators auxin (AX), gibberellin (GA) and cytokinin (CK) (0.0, 250 and 500 mL.kg^-1 applied via foliar, under field cultivation conditions, will show satisfactory plant establishment and increase in grain productivity (agronomic efficiency). The experimental design used was in randomized blocks (DBC) consisting of 5 treatments with 5 replications of 5 plants each, in which each treatment had a useful area of 10.5 m² , totaling 262.5 m² of experimental area. The data obtained were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey mean test at a significance level of 5% (α=0.05). We report that corn plants treated with biostimulants in field cultivation conditions, from sowing until the beginning of the reproductive period, presented satisfactory plant stand establishment, however, they did not present increases in agronomic efficiency.