Abstract

Sugarcane (Saccharum spp) is an expanding culture for the production of bioethanol around the world which requires certain practices to improve its productive performance at the different ecosystems. This work's aim is to evaluate the initial Sugarcane growth and drought tolerance through the application of biostimulants. For this purpose an experiment was conducted in a greenhouse using completely randomized design. Prior to planting, the cuttings were treated with: T₁ - Water; T₂ - Indolebutyric Acid (IBA); T₃ - Boron + Zinc; T₄ - Tryptophan; T₅ - Kymon Plus^® + Potamol^®; and T₆ - Stimulate^®. Morphological analysis was performed at 40 and 124 days after planting (DAP) to assess the plant initial growth. The biostimulants effect on drought stress mitigation was evaluated at 120 DAP, after 3 days of suppression irrigation. The IBA and Stimulate^® application delivered higher growth rates and biomass accumulation. When compared to Control treatment, the application of Ubyfol^® and Stimulate^® provided higher photosynthesis in the absence of drought stress and had higher PSII effective quantum yield even when plants were under drought stress. The application of Stimulate^® enabled plants to maintain higher photosynthetic, transpiration and stomatal conductance rates under moderate drought stress.

Key words: Drought stress, photosynthesis, Saccharum spp, transpiration