a b s t r a c tPlant analysis plays a major role in fertilizer recommendations for perennial tree crops and vines. Plant analysis, however, does not quantify the rate of nutrients to apply. The approach developed in this work takes into account the content of the nutrients in grapevine parts and their dynamic within the plant to assist in the estimation of the amount of fertilizer to apply. Groups of three vines were cut at ground level on four different dates from September 14th to November 28th. On the first sampling date the vines were separated into trunk, cordons, canes, leaves and clusters for determination of dry matter content and elemental composition. On the following dates the vines were separated into the plant parts that were still present, since the clusters were only present on the first sampling date and the leaves on the first two. To assess the mobility of nutrients within the plant, samples of phloem vessels and sawdust of the entire trunk were taken as well as samples of chlorotic and green leaves. Nitrogen (N), potassium (K), phosphorus (P) and boron (B) showed mobility within the plant whereas calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) did not. The removal of nutrients in clusters is critical for estimating N and K fertilizer rates. Clusters removed 19.9 kg N ha −1 and 28.7 kg K ha −1 . In the case of N, it is also important to assess the system's ability to recycle the nutrient contained in the leaves and canes which amounted to 49.4 kg N ha −1 . Phosphorus, calcium and magnesium applications might not justify being taken into account in the annual fertilization plan. Thus, the establishment of the fertilization programme should be a nutrient-specific exercise which takes into account all sources of information, including target yield and nutrient content in clusters, the vineyard management strategies influencing nutrient use efficiency from fallen leaves and prunings and soil testing and plant analysis.
<span lang="EN-US">Given the environmental impact of nitrogen (N)-fertilizer manufacture and use, the sustainable management of agro-systems should be sought by growing N-fixing legumes. In this work, eleven self-reseeding annual legumes were grown in pure stands as mulching cover crops in a rainfed olive orchard managed without grazing animals. Dry matter yield, N content in above-ground biomass, groundcover percentage and persistence of the sown species were assessed during four growing seasons. All covers provided enough soil protection over the year, with living plants during the autumn/winter period and a mulch of dead residues during the summer. The legumes overcame a false break observed in the third year recovering the dominance of the covers in the fourth growing season. This means that the seed bank established in previous seasons ensured the persistence of the sown legume even when a gap in seed production occurred. The early-maturing cultivars produced less biomass and fixed less N (approx. 50 kg N/ha/yr present in the above-ground biomass) than the late-maturing ones, but would compete less for water since the growing cycle finished earlier in the spring. They seem best suited to being grown in dry farmed olive orchards with low N demand in drought prone regions.<br /></span>
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.