FERTILIZATION AND NUTRITION OF SWEET POTATO: A REVIEW

Abstract

The sweet potato is an important food for the population, being rich in proteins, fibers, nutrients such as K, P, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Cu, and bioactive compounds. It is usually cultivated by small producers. In Brazil, the productivity obtained is much lower than the productive potential of the crop. The nutrition and fertilization of the sweet potato crop is a very complex and contradictory theme. The objective of this work was to analyze the existing works in the literature regarding this theme, aiming to contribute to a better understanding of the issues related to fertilization and nutrition of sweet potato. Through this review, it can be concluded that sweet potatoes have high production capacity, even under conditions of low soil fertility. But new research is needed, as many results to date are still controversial. In this sense, the present work suggests some practices that can help to obtain high productivity: to avoid using doses of nitrogen (N) greater than 150 kg ha(-1); to partition nitrogen fertilization by 33% at planting, 33% at 30 days after planting (DAP) and 33% at 60 DAP; seek to balance doses of N and K, avoiding doses of N much higher that of K; do not use P doses greater than 200 kg ha(-1); in soils with low B content, apply 1 to 2 kg ha(-1) of boron (B). In soils with high fertility, the organic fertilization with doses of 25-30 t ha(-1) of bovine manure is enough to obtain good yields.