AgroPages-Brazilians use silicon to control nematode in coffee-Agricultural news

Nematodes drastically affects the root system of the coffee plant, where it causes necrosis and cracking, reducing the absorption of water and nutrients, affecting the development and production of plants, making them weak and depleted, even resulting in their death, according to portal Global Agrochemicals.

The most devastating species is the Meloidogyne incognita.

According to Arthur Henrique Cruvinel Carneiro, an agronomist and member of Core of Studies on Coffee Crops and the Study Group on Herbicides, Weeds and Allelopathy, nutritional management, besides the effect on the growth and the plant production, can also help at the increase of resistance and tolerance of the same toward an attack of pathogen micro-organisms. According to him, the use of silicon has demonstrated a positive effect because it reduces the severity of diseases on several crops, including coffee.

“The induction of resistance using silicon comes as an option for the management of nematodes on coffee. The resistance can be increased by modification on the anatomy and physiological and biochemical properties, or simply by the alterations of the plants to plague attacks through the increase of mechanical barriers and the induction of synthesis of diverse anti-microbial compositions that act directly or indirectly over the nematode,” he explained.

Silicon (Si) is still an element on which not much research has been conducted for its uses in agriculture, but it promises to grow a lot with new studies over the role of nutrition in some crops with economic importance. A large quantity of diverse materials have been used as a source of Si for the plants and there are several commercial products that present Si in its formulation, using calcium silicate as a base. Another strategy that the coffee grower can adopt is the foliar silicon application. Several companies bet on the use of silicate through leaves.

“Silicon contributes substantially to strengthen the structure of the plant and increase the resistance to bedding and the attack of plagues and diseases, besides reducing the transpiration. With all the direct and indirect benefits for the use of silicon, this element can then increase the productivity of coffee crops,” he said in conclusion.