Development and nutritional status of calla lily submitted to nutrient deficiency

Abstract Knowledge about the nutritional aspects of calla lily, an important species for the floriculture industry, is essential for quality on cultivation. As there are variations in the symptoms of nutritional deficiencies among species, it is necessary to study the development of plants and their nutritional status when grown under nutrient omission. Thus, the aim was to evaluate the development of calla lily plants and identify the levels of nutrients and their interactions in cultivation conditions under nutritional deficiency. The treatments consisted in the use of the complete nutrition solution and the omission of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Fe, B, and Mn, separately. The experimental design was in randomized block design with four replications. The omissions of P, S, Ca, K, N, and B have influenced the plant development providing lower production of leaves and in small size, reduction on shoots production and less leaves emitted by the shoots, besides a lower values of dry matter. Among these nutrients, the deficiencies that most affected the growth and quality of calla lily plants development were N, B and Ca. The B and N deficiency inhibited the flowering and the absence of S and K provided inflorescences production with lower quality, besides malformation. The main interactions that occurred were increasing in the content of K (leaves), Fe (leaves) and Mn (leaves and inflorescences) in the absence of Ca. In the absence of Mg there was an increase in Ca (leaves, rhizomes, and inflorescences), Zn (leaves and roots) and Fe (rhizomes). It can be concluded that the nutritional deficiencies that most affected the production of inflorescences in calla lily were those of B, N, P, K, Ca, and S and the main nutritional interactions occurred in the absence of Ca with an increase in K, Fe and Mn and an increase in Ca, Fe and Zn in the absence of Mg.