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Universidade Estadual de Maringá, Departamento de Ciências Agronômicas, Avenida Colombo n. 5790, CEP: 87020-900,
Maringá, P. R. Brazil. *e-mail: jucileia_irian@hotmail.com
Received 15 July 2012, accepted 2 October 2012.
Abstract
Castor plant (Ricinus communis L.) presents relevant economic importance due mainly to its oil content. The use of seed treatment with fungicides is a secure, low-cost measure, but in Brazil there are no registered chemicals for the culture of castor. This way the work was done in order to assess the seed treatment influence with fungicides in the early development of the castor plants. The experiment was conducted in protected environment,
Maringá University, campus Umuarama–Paraná State, Brazil. In ten vessels the seeds were treated with fungicide dose of 120 ml of i.a. for 100 kg of seed, the active ingredients were carboxin+thiram and ten other vessels did not receive any treatment. Height of the plant at 7, 14 and 21 days after the emergence (DAE) was measured and at 21 DAE dry matter of the shoots and roots were determined. There was no significant difference between treatments for plant height and dry matter of the shoot.
Key words: Castor oil plant, seed treatment, biodiesel.
Introduction
The castor crop (Ricinus communis L.) is an oleaginous species of the family Euphorbiaceae. From Etiopia it spread to all the world because of easy propagation and adaptation to different climatic conditions. It was introduced in Brazil by the Portuguese and now can be found throughout national territory 11 .
It has great economical and social importance with many industrial applications, and has a better development when cultivated in hot weather, because castor crop is one of the most traditional crops in the Northeast region, characterized by the semi-arid climate, scarcity of precipitation and high evaporation rates, with the exception Bahia south and Maranhão State 2 .
Castor plant has great drought tolerance and deep root system with ability to explore the deeper layers of soil, which helps increase aeration and water retention and distribution in soil, which normally do not concern other annual crops such as soybeans, beans and corn, because they do not have so deep roots 4 .
The chemical composition of castor seed varies according to the variety and region where it is grown, however, oil content ranges from 35 to 55%, 44% as standard being adopted. The oil has diverse applications and can be used in the manufacture of paints and insulation, as lubricant in aeronautics, for cosmetics and pharmaceutical products. It also can be used in the manufacture of dyes, disinfectants, germicide, anilines, lubricating oils of low temperature glues and adherents, fungicides and insecticides, inks, varnishes and nylon 3 .
According to Azevedo et al. 1 , the low productivity of castor in Brazil is because use of low quality seed. Use of good quality seed is a vital step to ensure the success of agricultural crops, because the seed is one of the main means of spreading pathogens 7 .
Microorganisms are the main cause of reduced seed quality of many agricultural crops, especially when these have high water content. Fungi are the main microorganisms that reduce quality of the seeds because of the heating of the roots and consumption of reserves. These problems can be prevented with seed treatment with fungicide. The seed treatment is safe and cheap, however, there are not many studies of the use of these products to some crops, and in Brazil there are not chemical products registered for the castor crop 8 .
Although being of great importance, the studies of seed treatment for disease control in the castor are scarce, and there is still no chemicals registered in Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food supply, for such purpose 10 .
Carboxin+thiram fungicide is registered at the Agriculture
Ministry, being systemic in nature and may reduce seed inoculum and protects them in the most critical moments, the first moments in the ground 5 . This work aimed to study the influence of seed treatment with fungicide in initial development of castor crop.
Materials and Methods
The experiment was conducted under protected crop conditions at Farm in Umuarama Municipal District, Paraná State, Brazil, at 53º18
′
48" west longitude and 23º47
′
55" south latitude and 430 m of altitude over the sea level. Climate is mesothermal subtropical with average annual temperature around 22.1ºC. The local soil is an Udic Dystrophic Oxisol 13 . Experiment installation was performed on October 21 th , 2011, using a completely randomized design with two treatments and ten replicates, totaling 20 plots.
Castor seeds used were divided into two portions, one of which
Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment, Vol.10 (3&4), July-October 2012
443

received treatment with the fungicide carboxin+thiram (120 ml a.i.
. per 100 kg seed). After treatment, sowing was carried out using 5 seeds per plastic bag, having a 3-litre volume and 30 cm height.
After germination thinning was carried out, leaving only two plants per pot, so the average of two plants per pot was used.
The seedling height was measured with a ruler after 7, 14 and 21 days after emergence (DAE). At 21 DAE, the shoots were collected and placed in paper bags. The dry matter of the shoots was weighed after drying in forced air ventilation oven for 48 hours at
65°C.
Statistical analysis was performed following analysis of variance model with mean comparison by Tukey’s test at 5% error probability.
Treatment
Treated
Control
Results and Discussion
There was no significant difference between treatments for plant height and dry matter of the shoot (Table 1) . This can be explained that seed treatment does not interfere in the germination and initial development of seedling, showing no phytotoxic effect.
Table 1. Plant height (cm) and shoot dry matter of castor plants as a function of seed treatment with carboxin+thiram (Umuarama (PR)-2011).
7 DAE 14 DAE 21 DAE Dry matter
Plant height (cm) mg
4.8 a
3.9 a
6.1 a
5.2 a
7.2 a
6.4 a
610 a
540 a
*DAE = Days after emergence. Means followed by same letter in column do not differ by Tukey’s test at 5% error probability. C.V. = variation coefficient.
Lenz et al.
Neto et al.
6
9
obtained similar results in evaluation to seven days after sowing, the treatment with carboxin+thiram, in dose of
120+120 g i.a. per 100 kg -1 of seed was statistically matching to the control without treatment.
studied the influence of fungicides (carbendazim, carbendazim+thiram, carboxin+thiram, thiophanate methyl, difenoconazol, fludioxonil+metalaxil, thiram) in seed germination, emergence and seedling health, obtaining as a result that the fungicides have significantly influenced in germination and sanity, but for emergence response has not been verified.
Other works such as Poletine et al. 10 show that the treatment of seeds with fungicide resulted in increased productivity and carboxin+thiram among others, provided for greater productivity.
Different concentrations of carboxin+thiram, formol and carbendazim did not influence on the germination, field emergence, emergence speed index and vigour of seedling valued by number of shoots, height and fresh and dry mass of shoots 12 .
For the castor crop, the fungicide seed treatment to minimize the damage at the early stages, did not influence the development but contributed positively to the grubbing up of seedlings.
References
1 Azevedo, D. M. P. and Lima, E. F. 2001. O agronegócio da mamona no
Brasil. Embrapa Informação Tecnológica, Brasília, DF, 350 p.
2 Costa, F. X., Severino, L.S., Beltrão, N. E. M., Freire, R.M. M., Lucena,
A. M. A. and Guimarães, M. M. B. 2004. Evaluation of chemical levels in castor bean. Revista de Biologia e Ciências da Terra, Campina Grande
4(2):135-146.
3 Costa, H. M., Ramos, V. D., Abrantes, T. A. S., Castro, D. F., Visconte,
L. L. Y., Nunes, R. C. R. and Furtado, C. R. G. 2004. Effects from the castor oil on silica-filled natural rubber compounds. Polímeros: Ciência e Tecnologia, São Carlos 14(1):46-50.
4 Embrapa-Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária 2006. Cultivo da mamona. Embrapa-CNPA, Algodão, Campina Grande, Sistemas de Produção, 4-2. Available at http://sistemasdeproducao.cnptia. embrapa.br/FontesHTML/Mamona/CultivodaMamona_2ed/ climasolo.html
5 Goulart, A.C. P. 2000. Influence of graphite added to soybean and cotton in the efficiency of fungicide treatment. Embrapa Agropecuária Oeste,
8:87.
6 Lenz, G., Costa, I. D., Zemolin, C. R., Karkow, D., Melo, A. A. and Silva, T.
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D., Carneiro, P. T., Santos, V. R. and Cavalcante, V. S. 2010.
Physiological quality and health of castor seed treated with fungicides.
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Oliveira, K. S. 2008. Physiological quality and seed health of castor treated with fungicides. 3° Congresso Brasileiro de Mamoma,
Anais.Available from: 160 http://www.seagri.ba.gov.br/anais_mamona/
SEMENTES/S%2016.pdf.
10 Poletine, J. P., Maciel, C. D. G., Telli, F. B., Zanotto, M. D. and
Amaral, J. G. C. 2006. Evaluation of fungicides for seed treatment of castor oil plant (Ricinus communis L.). 2° Congresso Brasileiro de
Mamona, Anais. Available from: 164 http://www.cnpa.embrapa.br/ produtos/mamona/publicacoes/trabalhos_cbm2/137.pdf
11 Távora, F. J. A. F. 1982. A cultura da mamona. Epace, Fortaleza, 111 p.
12 Tropaldi, L., Camargo, J. A., Smarsi, R. C., Kulczynski, S. M.,
Mendonça, C. G. and Barbosa, M. M. M. 2010. Physiological and health quality of castor seeds submitted to different chemical treatments.
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13 USDA 2010. Keys to Soil Taxonomy. 11 th edn. Department of
Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Soil Survey Staff,
Washington, USA, 939 p.
Conclusions
The seed treatment with fungicides carboxin+thiram did not increase height and dry weight of aboveground castor plants, and thus did not influence their development.
Acknowledgements
To Maringa University by the great range of facilities that allowed for achievement this experiment. To Journal of Food, Agriculture
& Environment for the opportunity to publish this article.
444 Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment, Vol.10 (3&4), July-October 2012