Microrganismos eficientes como tratamento para fungos em grãos de milho armazenados

Abstract

Corn is a cereal that has great economic importance and, therefore, enormous versatility in its use, both in Brazil and in several other countries around the world. Considering the off-season periods, corn needs to be stored, and to maintain the quality of the grain for longer, treatments are carried out, generally based on the use of pesticides. Considering some alternative control methods, there are several studies that employ the use of essential oils as a way to reduce the use of pesticides in the treatment of stored grains, promoting greater sustainability. However, the use of efficient microorganisms has not yet been used. Therefore, the objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of treatment with efficient microorganisms, at different doses, on the health of corn grains over storage periods. The experiment was carried out at the Federal University of Fronteira Sul – Campus Erechim, in a completely randomized design, using grains from the FS533 corn hybrid and three doses of efficient microorganisms (0%, 50% and 100%), considering the application of 1.5 liters of syrup per ton of grain. The grains were stored in a gerbox containing 300 corn seeds for 0, 1, 2, 4 and 6 months. After each storage period, the grains were subjected to the Blotter test and the percentage of fungal infection was verified. The fungi found in corn grains were Fusarium spp., Aspergillus spp. and Penicillium spp. with an average infection rate of 87%, 2% and 85%, respectively. Throughout the storage periods, efficient microorganisms did not control or even increased the fungal infection in corn grains. Analyzing each storage time in isolation, the applied doses did not differ from the control, only within 1 month of storage the 50% dose resulted in a reduction in the percentage of Fusarium spp. infection. Therefore, the use of efficient microorganisms is not efficient to control fungi in stored corn grains.