CALCIUM SUPPLY IN THE DEVELOPMENT AND NUTRITION OF ASIATIC Lilium

Lilium is a species of great economic importance in the production and commercialization of cut flowers in the international market. Under conditions of cultivation in soil or substrate, some cultivars develop visual symptoms of leaf scorch and tip burn in young leaves and problems of quality, such as flacidity of the stem and shorter vase life. These symptoms have been attributed to a deficiency of Ca, and indicate that the requirement for this nutrient may be different among cultivars. Therefore, the objective of the present investigation was to evaluate the effect of the supply of Ca in the development and nutrition of Asiatic Lilium cv. Dream Land and Vermeer, and to determine the demand of Ca of these cultivars. The treatments were the application of nutritive solutions with different levels of Ca determined according to the universal method of preparation of nutritive solutions (Steiner, 1984). The treatments had no effect (p > 0.05) on the development and nutrition of Dream land. The requirement of average supply of Ca for this cultivar was 6.75 me L-1; while for cv. Vermeer the maximum development was obtained with 9.94 me L-1. The concentration of Ca associated with the maximum production of dry weight (51.6 g plant(-1)) at the moment of cutting for Dream land was 0.31% and 0.30% for Vermeer, with a biomass of 16.9 g plant(-1). The requirements of Ca, as well as the supply, varied among cultivars.