Agronomic Efficiency of Bone Meal under Acidification in Brachiaria ruziziensis Dry Matter Production in Western Amazon

Aims: The objective of this work was to evaluate the agronomic efficiency of the bone meal under acidification in the production of dry matter of Brachiaria ruziziensis in relation to a soluble source.

Study Design: The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with seven treatments and three replications. Treatments included a control, single superphosphate (SS), bone meal (BM), BM treated with 10% oxalic acid, BM treated with 10% acetic acid, and BM treated with 1% to 0.5% hydrochloric acid.

Place and Duration of Study: The experiment was carried out from October 2014 to February 2015, at the Experimental Farm of the Federal University of Rondônia (UNIR), located 15 km from the city of Rolim de Moura, Rondônia, Brazil.

Methodology: The bone meal used in the experiment was produced manually, where bovine bones were collected and burned for carbon removal and particle reduction. The oxalic acid, acetic acid and hydrochloric acid were used to increase the solubility of the bone meal for application to the soil for growth of B. ruziziensis. Parameters evaluated were the agronomic efficiency index (AEI), phosphorus conversion efficiency (PCE), shoot dry matter (SDM), and root dry matter (RDM).

Results: AEI obtained for acid treatments was above 60% and PCE satisfactory when compared to the soluble source, except for 0.5% hydrochloric acid and significantly above the BM without acid treatments. There was higher production of SDM and RDM with the soluble source (SS), however the acid treatments promoted dry matter production above the BM without acid treatments.

Conclusions: The application of acids in bone meal promoted satisfactory agronomic efficiency gains for Brachiaria ruziziensis.