Relationship of foliar nutrients with incidence of thrips in onion cultivars Epagri 352 Bola Precoce and Epagri 362 Crioula Alto Vale

Abstract

The objective of this research was to evaluate the relationship between foliar nutrients in onion, Allium cepa L., and the incidence of trips, Thrips tabaci Lind. The work was done in the years 2009 and 2010 at the Experimental Station of Ituporanga with the following cultivars: Epagri 352 Bola Precoce and Epagri 362 Criola Alto Vale. Foliar nutrient levels and the number of trips´ nymphs were evaluated weekly. The relationship between the trips´ nymphs and the nutrients from the leaves of onions at the Epagri´s cultivars Epagri 352 Bola Precoce and Epagri 362 Crioula Alto Vale were respectively as follows: y = 36.74 - 1.24N + 0.08Fe, R2 = 0.382, e y = -24.76 + 1.56Ca + 0.028Fe + 1.61Cu, R2 = 0.442. Iron showed positive relationship with the insect´s incidence for the two cultivars analyzed.