Abstract

Phosphorus (P) and Zinc (Zn) stand out for their interactions, however, little is known about the interaction of these elements in organic substrates used in the development of plants. The objective of this work was to evaluate the extractable and total P and Zn of the enriched coconut powder substrate and the development of tomato seedlings grown on the same substrate. The work consisted of 10 treatments and 4 replicates with different doses of P and Zn. The substrate used was coconut powder enriched with nutrient solutions in a ratio of 10:1 (v/m). Then, the experiment was conducted using the enriched substrate to observe the effect of P and Zn doses on the development of tomato seedlings in trays. The height, number of leaves and the dry matter of the plants were evaluated. For the water and Mehlich-1 extractors the highest values of P and Zn were for treatments with the highest doses and only the quadratic positive effect of P did not differ statistically in the enriched coconut powder substrate. The results showed that the coconut powder used as substrate is deficient in P and Zn. The highest development of the seedlings was obtained at the doses of 74 mg L^-1 P and 3.25 and 4.75 mg L^-1 Zn of the substrate enrichment solution.

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