Chicory yield influenced by seedling quality and growing environment

ABSTRACT The objective of this work was to evaluate the quality of chicory seedlings in organic substrata and their influence on yield and commercial yield in a protected environment and under direct sunlight. Seedling and field production experiments were conducted in a randomized block design with four blocks. In the first experiment, seedlings were produced on substrata by alternating the conditioner: 1) dry coconut fiber + blend (soil, organic compost, charcoal); 2) carbonized rice husk + blend; 3) crushed ouricuri stem + blend; 4) decomposed kapok stem + blend and 5) commercial substratum. Sufficient seedlings were produced for the evaluations and transplantation. In the field phase, two experiments were evaluated, one in a protected environment and another under direct sunlight. The commercial and ouricuri substrata produced seedlings with the same quality and biomass index, but above to the others. The yield (0.89 kg m-2) and commercial yield (68.29 packs m-2) in the protected environment are not affected by seedling quality. In the direct sunlight cultivation, the yield is higher when using seedlings produced with the commercial (0.75 kg m-2), ouricuri (1.07 kg m-2), or kapok substrata (0.74 kg m-2).