Accumulation of Macro- and Micronutrients and Nitrogen Demand-supply Relationship of ‘Gala’/‘Malling 26’ Apple Trees Grown in Sand Culture

Abstract

<jats:p>Six-year-old ‘Gala’/‘Malling26’ (‘M.26’) apple (<jats:italic>Malus</jats:italic> ×<jats:italic>domestica</jats:italic> Borkh.) trees grown in sand culture were provided with a total of 30 g of N per tree as enriched <jats:sup>15</jats:sup>N-NH<jats:sub>4</jats:sub>NO<jats:sub>3</jats:sub> in Hoagland's solution via fertigation to determine the magnitude and seasonal patterns of accumulation of macro- and micronutrients and the demand-supply relationship of N. Crop load was adjusted to 8.2 fruit/cm<jats:sup>2</jats:sup> trunk cross-sectional area, at king fruit diameter of 10 mm by hand-thinning. At each of seven key developmental stages throughout one annual growth cycle, four trees were excavated and destructively sampled for complete nutrient analysis. Nutrient concentrations in leaves and fruit fell within the recommended optimal range, and the fruit yield was 18.8 kg/tree (equivalent to 52.45 t·ha<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup>) with an average fruit weight of 181 g. The net accumulation of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, and S from budbreak to fruit harvest was 19.8, 3.3, 36.0, 14.2, 4.4, and 1.6 g/tree, respectively, and that for B, Zn, Cu, Mn, and Fe was 93.6, 60.9, 46.5, 184.8, and 148.7 mg/tree, respectively. Nutrient accumulation by new growth (fruit plus shoots and leaves) accounted for over 90% of the net gain for N, P, K, Mg, S, and B in the whole tree and a large proportion of the net gain for Ca, Zn, Mn, and Fe (from 58.1% for Zn to 87.2% of Fe) from budbreak to fruit harvest. Differential nutrient accumulation patterns were found in shoots and leaves and fruit. The most rapid accumulation of all nutrients in shoots and leaves took place during active shoot growth from bloom to the end of shoot growth. The accumulation pattern of most nutrients corresponded well with the accumulation of dry matter, with continued accumulation observed only in total Ca and Mn in shoots and leaves after the end of shoot growth. Nutrient accumulation in fruit largely followed its dry matter accumulation, and a large proportion of the nutrient accumulation (from 58.1% for Zn to 77.4% of K) occurred from the end of shoot growth to fruit harvest. At harvest, fruit contained more P, K, B, and Fe, whereas shoots and leaves had more N, Ca, Mg, S, Zn, and Mn. Most of the N demand by new growth at bloom was provided by tree reserve N. Remobilization of N from perennial parts of the tree was found to support rapid fruit expansion from the end of shoot growth to fruit harvest. The most rapid uptake from current season's N supply occurred from bloom to the end of shoot growth, corresponding to the highest tree N demand. At harvest, 62.4% of the total N in new growth was in shoots and leaves, with the balance in fruit. Reserve N and current season's N uptake each contributed about 50% to the total N in the whole tree at harvest.</jats:p>

Influence of rootstocks on growth, yield, fruit quality and leaf mineral element contents of pear cv. ‘Santa Maria’ in semi-arid conditions

“…The results we have obtained from this study's findings are in agreement with Belkhodja et al [30]. In our study, the results that we have obtained similarly, in another study, the concentration of most nutrients in leaves decreased as the growing season progressed, with only that of Ca, Mg, and Mn showing an increase [31]. …”

Seasonal changes in nutrient content and concentrations in a mature deciduous tree species: Studies in almond (Prunus dulcis (Mill.) D. A. Webb)

“…A high level of internal recycling can be expected in the growing environment of this experiment in which movement of water below the root zone is minimal and gaseous N losses are small (Schellenberg et al, 2012). In many horticultural perennial crops, fruits have been identified as the greatest sink (Araujo and Williams, 1988;Alva et al, 2006;Cheng and Raba, 2009;Pradubsuk and Davenport, 2010;Roccuzzo et al, 2012). The percentage of tree nutrients partitioned to fruit in almond, however, is much greater than described for crops like apple (Cheng and Raba, 2009) and orange (Alva et al, 2006;Roccuzzo et al, 2012).…”

“…In many horticultural perennial crops, fruits have been identified as the greatest sink (Araujo and Williams, 1988;Alva et al, 2006;Cheng and Raba, 2009;Pradubsuk and Davenport, 2010;Roccuzzo et al, 2012). The percentage of tree nutrients partitioned to fruit in almond, however, is much greater than described for crops like apple (Cheng and Raba, 2009) and orange (Alva et al, 2006;Roccuzzo et al, 2012). This is due in part to the relatively low vegetative and new wood growth that is produced each year under moderate crop loads (Kester et al, 1996).…”

“…The majority of nutrient accumulation in almond trees coincided with kernel filling (60-120 DAFB) and the rate of fruit N accumulation decreased markedly after kernel maturation (120 DAFB). In apple, Cheng and Raba (2009) reported that most of the fruit N accumulation had occurred by 90 days after bud break. In orange, Roccuzzo et al (2012) observed that the majority of N accumulated in fruit occurred by September and this coincided with greatest fruit biomass accumulation.…”

“…For a wide range of annual and perennial field crop species, nutrient budgets have been developed to determine time and rate of fertilizer applications (Geraldson and Tyler, 1990;Sabbe and Zelinski, 1990;Ulrich and Hills, 1990;Benbi and Biswas, 1999). Nutrient demand curves have been developed for perennial horticultural fruits on the basis of nutrient removal in fruits and vegetative plant parts such as for apple (Cheng and Raba, 2009), pistachio (Rosecrance et al, 1998), kiwifruit (Clark and Smith, 1988;Tagliavini et al, 2000) and citrus (Alva et al, 2006;Roccuzzo et al, 2012). Nutrient demand curves have not been developed for almond and those available for other deciduous tree species were generally limited in scale and did not include differential fertilizer treatments.…”