Production of Tomato Seedlings using Seeds Pelleted with Natrum muriaticum and Submitted to Saline Stress
Bonfim FPG, Vicente Wagner Dias Casali, Aline Mako Yoshikawa
Abstract
The development and yield of plants are directly related to the effects of salinity. Several scientific studies report a significant reduction in the growth and production of tomatoes in soils with high electrical conductivity. The correction or recovery of salinized soils, although technically possible, is a slow and costly process, making it necessary to develop new technologies. This study aims to evaluate the production of tomato (Solanum lycopersicon L.) seedlings using seeds pelleted with a homeopathic preparation of Natrum muriaticum (Nat-m) submitted to saline stress. The treatments consisted of the pelletization of tomato seeds with six dynamizations of Nat-m (3cH, 5cH, 7cH, 9cH, 11cH, and 13cH). Coated or uncoated seeds (controls) were placed in phenolic foam blocks, kept in plastic trays previously moistened with 50 mM NaCl saline solution (2.922 g.L-1 of NaCl, electrical conductivity = 4.5 dSm-1) and nutrient solution (0.15 dS.m-1) at half the ionic strength, containing 4, 1, 2, 1, 0.5, and 0.5 mmol.L-1 of N, P, K, Ca, Mg and S, and 17.5, 9.5, 10.5, 2, 0.45 and 0.35 mmol.L-1 of Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, and Mo, respectively. The variables evaluated were the percentage of emerged plants, emergence speed index, shoot length, leaf area, number of leaves, root volume, root dry matter, and shoot dry matter. The treatments pelleted seeds/talc Nat-m 5cH and pelleted seeds/talc Nat-m 7cH increased all variables evaluated. However, they differed statistically from the controls, positively developing tomato seedlings under disequilibrium conditions.
Keywords: Salinity, homeopathic preparations, Solanum lycopersicon, pelletization, homeos