Yield, income and bromatology of ‘Chinês’ and ‘Macaquinho’ taro in response to forms of adding chicken manure to the soil

Abstract

Yield of Taro is very variable by the unknowing of its genotype characteristics and by differences of planting practices, mainly about the use of organic residues as covering or incorporated to the soil. The aim of this work was to analyze the productivity, gross income and bromatological composition of ‘Chinês’ and ‘Macaquinho’ taro, cultivated with different forms of adding semi-decomposed chicken manure to the soil (soil without chicken manure; with chicken manure as covering; with chicken manure incorporated to the soil and with chicken manure as covering + incorporated to the soil). Treatments were arranged in a 2 x 4 factorial scheme in a randomized complete block design with five replications. Two harvests were performed at 183 and 211 days after transplanting. There was no difference for most of the characteristics evaluated under addiction of chicken manure. Yields of commercial cormels from Macaquinho were higher than Chinês, which can be seen as positive feature for higher gross income. Plants of ‘Macaquinho’ taro were precocious and more productive than ‘Chinês’ taro. To obtain higher gross income, ‘Macaquinho’ taro must be cultivated with adding chicken manure to the soil as covering (5 t ha-1) + incorporated to the soil (5 t ha-1) and harvested 183 days after planting. Bromatological analysis showed that corms and cormels of ‘Chinês’ taro were more nutritious than ‘Macaquinho’ taro when grown without chicken manure.