Production and profitability of mint (Mentha x piperita L.) with organic and inorganic soil covers

Abstract

Peppermint is a medicinal plant, being an interesting income item, however it is susceptible to water deficit, this being the main cause of the low yields of this item in plots without an irrigation system. With the objective of evaluating productive and economic parameters of peppermint with organic and inorganic soil covers, this research was carried out in a completely randomized design, composed of five treatments (soil without cover, black mulching, white mulching, rice husk and patcholí grass) and four repetitions, totaling 20 experimental units. The variables evaluated were: length of basal shoots, number of basal shoots and lateral shoots, yield of fresh and dry mass, cost/benefit profitability of each type of coverage. All means were subjected to the analysis of variance (ANAVA) and the means were compared by the Tukey Test at 5%. Regarding the length of basal shoots, the best results were with black mulching, followed by white mulching and patchouli grass; the greatest number of lateral shoots with 16.45 with the white mulching, on the other hand, in the number of basal shoots, the control had the highest number with 4.15. The white mulching presented a higher yield than the control for the fresh mass with 1,544 kg ha-1 and dry mass of 628 kg ha-1. When analyzing the profitability in the fresh mass of peppermint, the use of white mulching was more feasible and in dry mass they showed negative profitability for white mulching.