Evaluación de tres sustratos para el desarrollo del cultivo de arándano (Vaccinium corymbosum L.), variedad Biloxi en la parroquia Montalvo

Abstract

The market for blueberry fruits (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) has experienced an increase in demand in the last 10 years, placing it worldwide as the fourth fruit of economic importance, because they are considered natural products with many human health benefits. Given that there is no information on blueberry production in the country, in the present study the effect of the type of substrate on the vegetative growth of blueberry cultivar Biloxi was evaluated in Municipality of Montalvo, Tungurahua province. Three types of substrates were used: rice husk (T1), Pindstrup (T2) coconut fiber plus perlite (T3) and the variables were measured weekly: number of shoots, number of leaves, diameter of shoot (mm), height of the plant (cm), canopy, vigor, number of internodes, length of internodes and diameter of the stem. According to the results, the effect of the type of substrate was detected on the morpho-physiological variables of blueberry plants, being the highest values observed when rice husk (T1) coconut fiber + perlite (T2) was used as substrates during all the evaluations. Additionally, according to the Benefit-Cost ratio, it was determined that greatest benefits could be obtained with treatments 1 (rice husk) and 3 (coconut fiber + perlite), suggesting that a benefit of 2.24 and 2.27 dollars would be expected that for every dollar invested, respectively, while with the use of treatment 2 (Pindstrup), the benefit would be slightly lower