Journal of Agricultural Science; Vol. 10, No. 4; 2018 ISSN 1916-9752 E-ISSN 1916-9760 Published by Canadian Center of Science and Education 361 Nutritional Requirement of Sugarcane Cultivars Vinicius S. G. da Silva 1 , Mauro W. de Oliveira 1 , Vilma M. Ferreira 1 , Terezinha B. A. Oliveira 1 , Elaine R. Galvão 2 , Aleksandro F. da Silva 3 & Polyana A. S. Machado 4 1 Centro de Ciências Agrárias, Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Rio Largo, AL, Brazil 2 Departamento de Tecnologia e Ciências Sociais, Universidade do Estado da Bahia, Juazeiro, BA, Brazil 3 Departamento de Agronomia, Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Recife, PE, Brazil 4 Departamento de Zootecnia, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, Minas Gerais, MG, Brazil Correspondence: Vinicius S. G. da Silva, Centro de Ciências Agrárias, Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Rio Largo, AL 51100-000, Brazil. Tel: 55-81-99572-3906. E-mail: vinicius.agro2008.1@gmail.com Received: January 3, 2018 Accepted: February 11, 2018 Online Published: March 15, 2018 doi:10.5539/jas.v10n4p361 URL: https://doi.org/10.5539/jas.v10n4p361 Abstract Sugarcane produces a large amount of biomass, extracts and accumulates high amounts of nutrients. In the literature the nutritional requirements for most cultivated varieties in the past are found, however there is little information on the new varieties currently planted. The objective of this study was to evaluate the nutritional requirement of four sugarcane varieties, currently very planted, in the cycles of plant-cane, first and second ratoon. The study was installed in a Yellow Oxisol. The experimental design was a randomized block design, with five replications, and four treatments: RB867515, RB92579, SP813250 and VAT90212. During maturation of the cane, in the three evaluation cycles, the productivity of natural biomass and the nutritional requirement of macronutrients of the varieties were determined. It was evidenced that the cultivars of sugarcane are of high productive potential and resemble the accumulation of biomass, observing a yield of 158, 128 and 107 t ha -1 in the cycles of plant-cane, first and second ratoon. Regarding the nutritional requirement, the varieties did not differ among them and expressed the following order of need in the plant-cane K > N > Ca > Mg > S > P, in the first and second ratoon, the sequence observed was K > N > Ca > S > Mg > P. Keywords: biomass yield, nutrients extraction, nutritional efficiency, Saccharum spp. 1. Introduction Sugarcane is one of the world’s most bioenergy crops, with a production of approximately 2.5 million Mg year -1 . Brazil, considered as the largest producer, has approximately 9 million ha cultivated with sugarcane and generates about 25% of world production (Bellé et al., 2017). In spite of the high production, Brazilian sugarcane plantations have presented low yields, demonstrated by average less than 59 t ha -1 , due among other factors, inadequate fertilization that does not meet the nutritional needs of the crop, a result of lack of nutritional knowledge for new varieties (Oliveira et al., 2012; Santos et al., 2017; Silva et al., 2017a). Due to its large production of biomass, the cane exports and accumulates high amounts of nutrients from the soil. Based on a compilation by Oliveira et al. (2007) for a production of 120 Mg ha -1 of biomass, the accumulation of nutrients in the aerial part of the plants is respectively 150, 40, 180, 90, 50 and 40 kg of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg) and sulfur (S). In this way, to adequate nutritional management is important for sugarcane crop to become more productive and competitive. In this context, studies that evaluate the nutritional demand of sugarcane varieties are fundamental, since fertilization constitutes a significant part of the production costs of the sugarcane industry (Silva et al., 2017b), however, studies that identify nutrient requirements have not been carried out frequently, and the information available mostly refers to varieties that are no longer planted (Oliveira et al., 2010). The results of these studies have shown that cultivars may present variations in nutrient extraction (Oliveira et al., 2010; Calheiros et al., 2011). These differences can be largely associated to the morphological and physiological characteristics of the varieties associated with nutritional uptake, including the nutrient influx rate, the Michaelis-Mentem constant and the minimum concentration, below which there is no net inflow (Malavolta et al., 1997; Marshner, 2012).