GROWTH AND MINERAL COMPOSITION OF PAPAYA AND PASSION FRUIT SEEDLINGS IRRIGATED WITH GRAY WATER

ABSTRACT The semi-arid region has long periods of drought, so reusing water is an important alternative to enable irrigated agriculture. The objective of this study was to evaluate the growth and mineral composition of papaya and passion fruit seedlings irrigated with gray water effluents. Two experiments were carried out with papaya and passion fruit seedlings. For nondestructive analyses, the experimental arrangement was in splitplots in time, with plots consisting of three types of irrigation water (gray water effluent; supply water and mixture of gray water and supply water, at 1:1 ratio) and subplots formed by the evaluation times 30, 60 and 75 days after sowing, with three replicates and five plants per replicate. For destructive analyses, the experimental arrangement was a simple randomized block design, with three treatments, corresponding to the irrigation waters, with three replicates and five plants per replicate. The seedlings irrigated with gray water effluent had higher values of plant height, stem diameter, length of the largest root, shoot dry mass and root dry mass. N, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn and Zn contents in the tissue of papaya seedlings, cv. ‘Golden’, were not altered by irrigation with gray water effluent. N, Fe and Zn contents in the tissue of passion fruit seedlings, cv. ‘Redondo Amarelo’, were increased by the application of gray water effluent, while P, K, Ca, Mg and Mn contents were not influenced.