Diagnosis of macronutrient deficiency in black pepper

Abstract

Black pepper (Piper nigrum L.) is usually grown in soils of low natural fertility, and very acidic. The following experiment was carried out in order to gain information on the mineral nutrition of black pepper by inducing symptoms of deficiency of macronutrients. Young plants of the Bragantina cultivar were grown in nutrient solution under the treatments: complete, minus N, P, K, Ca, Mg and S. Symptoms of deficiency due to the omission of nutrients in the solution began to show up between 40 and 140 days after the experiment was started. Lack of N was the treatment with more drastic effect on growth. N and K were the elements taken up in higher proportion, being followed, in decreasing order, by Ca, Mg, P and S. Adequate and deficient leaf levels of the elements were found to be: N=34.7 and 17.4 g kg^-1, respectively; P=3.2 and 1.4 g kg^-1; K=19.5 and 5.6 g kg^-1; Ca=17.6 and7.7 g kg^-1; Mg=5.8 and 4.3 g kg^-1; S=2.8 and 1.7 g kg^-1.