Influence of soil properties on yield and fruit maturity at harvest of ‘Williams’ pear

Abstract

In the Upper Rio Negro Valley, northern Patagonia (Argentina), there is a large variability of soils and the success of a fruit plantation depends mostly on soil characteristics. The main objective of this work was to determine the relationships between yield and fruit internal maturity at harvest of pear trees (Pyrus communis L.) grown in soils with different properties. The soil around each of 30 trees was morphologically characterized by measuring physical, physic-chemical, and chemical variables. At harvest time, total and commercial yields were measured, and maturity was determined by measuring flesh firmness, soluble solids, and titratable acidity. According to edaphic variables, soils were classified into five groups. Yields presented significant differences among such groups and growing seasons. The distribution of commercial sizes was similar in soils with fine texture, and high K content (897 and 663 mg kg -1 ) and cation-exchange capacity. Smaller fruits predominated in soil groups with high salinity (6.1 dS m -1 in surface and 10.8 dS m -1 in subsurface horizons) and shallow depth. The soil group with the highest salinity presented fruits with 11% more titratable acidity compared to all other groups. The soil group with the smallest depth presented fruits with high levels of flesh firmness (11.18 kg cm -2 ) and soluble solids (14.8%). The selected set of edaphic variables allowed us to differentiate groups of soils and analyze its influence in pear tree yield, commercial sizes, and fruit internal maturity.

Quality evaluation of Lycium barbarum (wolfberry) from different regions in China based on polysaccharide structure, yield and bioactivities

“…However, the yield of LBPs ranged from 1.6 to 4.8%, indicating that significant differences existed in the yield of LBP’s obtained from plants collected from different origins. The LBPs yields of the plants samples collected from Ningxia and Xinjiang were significantly higher than those from Qinghai ( p < 0.05), which might have been affected by the specific conditions of the different cultivation regions, such as soil factors [15], light and temperature [16]. This difference is also reflected in the appearance characteristics of the samples (Fig.…”

A Novel Tran_NAS Method for the Identification of Fe- and Mg-Deficient Pear Leaves from N- and P-Deficient Pear Leaf Data

“…The nutrients in a pear tree determine the quality of the pears, and the various nutrient elements of a pear tree will affect the normal growth of the fruit . Therefore, a reduction in nutrients can reduce the yield and quality of fruit. , Among them, nitrogen (N) deficiency reduces the photosynthetic rate of pear trees, and excess N weakens the disease resistance of pear trees . Phosphorus (P) deficiency can lead to slow plant growth and poor root development, affecting the fruit quality and yield .…”

Quantifying Key Internal and External Yield-limiting Factors for Chinese Pear in Smallholder Dominant Areas

“…Pear growth and yield are affected by external factors (environmental and managerial) and internal factors (the plants themselves) (Maria et al, 2014). Regarding external factors, management mainly includes tree density (Bist and Yadav, 2004), fertilizer input rates (Duarte et al, 2010;Paula et al, 2020), ratio of mineral fertilizer and manure fertilizer (Liu et al, 2013), and disease and pest control (Glenn et al, 1997).…”

“…Changes in climatic factors, such as global warming, do not occur frequently and are difficult to control (Feng et al, 2018). One example of a soil factor is the soil nutrient status, which directly affects the absorption and utilization of nutrients by the tree to affect growth and yield (Aruani et al, 2014).…”