Applicability of DRIS in bananas based on the accuracy of nutritional diagnoses for nitrogen and potassium

Abstract

DRIS (Diagnosis Recommendation Integrated System) is a tool used in the interpretation of leaf analyses that values the balance of nutrients, an important fact for a better assessment of the nutritional status of banana plants. Its usefulness depends on the ability to identify the nutrients that limit productivity in order to correct possible nutritional imbalances, but there is a lack of research in all crops, including bananas, to assess the accuracy of these diagnoses, which have a worrying global implication. To this end, this study evaluates DRIS norms for banana cultivation in Ecuador and the use of accuracy measurements for nutritional diagnosis, verifying the capacity of DRIS to detect true nutritional status based on plant response. The database created here contains 233 results referring to productivity and leaf contents of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Cl, Fe, Mn, Cu, B, and Zn for banana trees in 2018, 2019, and 2020. Then, a field experiment evaluated doses of nitrogen and potassium and the accuracy of DRIS norms for N and K. The results show that the DRIS of banana produced in Ecuador depends on the nutrient being variable according to the crop nutritional status. The DRIS norms for diagnosis of N and K result in an acceptable accuracy to identify only deficiencies and toxicities, respectively, indicating the need for adjustments in these standards for later use in the field. Thus, there is a need for more research aiming to adopt calibrated DRIS diagnostic norms to assess the nutritional status of bananas in Ecuador.

Geotemperatura, flujo neto de calor del suelo y variables morfológicas del cultivo de soya (Glycine max L.) bajo condiciones de mulch plástico

“…El experimento se desarrolló en la Granja experimental Santa Inés en la Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias de la Universidad Técnica de Machala, ubicada en las coordenadas geográficas 3°15′52.29″ S, 79°57′4.3″ W, en el cantón Machala, provincia El Oro, Ecuador, ubicado a 6 m.s.n.m., el clima de la región es AW (tropical subhúmedo, según la clasificación de Köppen-Geiger). Los suelos de estas zonas son de formación aluvial y del orden inceptisol, según la clasificación taxonómica del Departamento de Agricultura de los Estados Unidos (USDA), adoptada en Ecuador (Villaseñor et al, 2022). La temperatura media anual de la zona de estudio es de 26 °C y la humedad relativa tiende a superar el 75% (Villaseñor et al, 2020).…”