Abstract

BORDA, Oswaldo Andrés; BARON, Fredy Humberto  and  GOMEZ, Manuel Iván. Silicon as a beneficial element in forage oat (Avena sativa L.): physiological responses of growth and management. Agron. colomb. [online]. 2007, vol.25, n.2, pp.273-279. ISSN 0120-9965.

The use of oat as a forage crop for animal feeding in Bogotá plateau is a general practice due to its energetic and protein contribution, and a short cycle of crop cultivation; for these reasons, it is important to increase oat production optimizing the mineral nutrition of this forage crop. The response of oat to silicon application was not verified, but it was confirmed for other Gramineae crops, which had a positive response in terms of production. The study indented to evaluate the beneficial effect of silicon by means of growth curves of yield components, such as clamping, plant height, stem diameter, and dry matter of stem and root. The application time (presowing and clamping) as a principal factor and dose (0, 50, 100, 150, or 200 mg·kg^-1 monosilicic acid as a source of highest silicon assimilation) as a secondary factor were taken into account. The experiment was performed under greenhouse conditions with an experimental design consisted in a factorial adjustment of 2 x 5, 10 treatments in 4 repetitions; the Tukey test (P < 0,01) was used for the average analysis. The results show that the application of silicon must be conducted mainly in presowing period because this presented a highly significant increase (P < 0,0001) in dry matter weight (34,9%) for the dose of 100 mg·kg^-1 (116,42 g for flowerpot) as compared with control (90 g by dry flowerpot) and was associated with a higher index of root dry matter (0,17) for the same dose as compared with treatment with no silicon application, which implies a greater capacity to absorption of nutrients.

Keywords : nutrition; strategic fertilization; monosilicic acid.

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