Potassium fertilization and its effect on the yield and physiological and sanitary quality of canola seeds - DOI: 10.4025/actasciagron.v26i4.1822

Abstract

Canola has been rising interest on industry by producing edible oil of excellent quality. Because of the information lack, several attempts have been undertaken in order to establish more suitable growing techniques. Thus, this work was accomplished in order to evaluate the potassium fertilization effect on the yield and physiological and sanitary quality of the canola seeds. Therefore, this experiment was set up in a randomized blocks design with four replications and the treatments were arranged in a subplot design. Five different amounts of potassium (0, 40, 80, 120 and 160kg ha^-1 of K₂O) distributed into each plot were used by administering KCl and the subplots consisted of two canola hybrids (Hyola 60 and Hyola 401). The evaluated production characteristics were seed yield and thousand seeds weight. The physiological and sanitary quality of the seeds was evaluated by standard germination test (first count and final count), accelerated aging test, modified cold test and blotter test. The potassium fertilization increased both germination and vigor of the canola seeds. The total of fungi was lower on seeds produced by the application of K amounts ranging from 50 to 60kg ha^-1 of K₂O. The amount which permitted the highest seed yield was 55.42kg ha^-1 of K₂O to Hyola 401 and 66.35kg ha^-1 of K₂O to Hyola 60