Evaluating sustainability of yield and fruit quality of sweet oranges with use of controlled release fertilizer and micronutrients

Evaluating sustainability of yield and fruit quality of sweet oranges with use of controlled release fertilizer and micronutrients

Report Date: 06/06/2022
Project: 18-061C   Year: 2021
Category: Horticultural & Management
Author: Tript Vashisth
Sponsor: Citrus Research and Development Foundation

This project is an continuation of an objective of existing CRDF funded project (# 00124558 ; ended in March 2019, final report submited to CRDF) with some added treatments to be evaluated in comparison to control (dry conventional fertilizer with foliar micronutrients).  Altogether currently there are 25 treatments of citrus nutrition that are being compared to control. In this quarter the project has been completed. A comprehensive final report has been submitted. Overall, the 5 years yield and fruit quality results suggest that soil applied micronutrient in form of Tiger-Sul product are beneficial for the trees. Foliar micronutrient should not be used as sole source of any nutrient. The soil-applied program takes time to show its effect and therefore, fertilizer programs should be evaluated with patience over the years. It is to be noted that fertilizer program should be site specific as results of one site cannot be replicated at other site. Therefore, the fertilizer program should be tweaked to address the specific needs of each unique site. Altogether, the best treatments (trts # 4, 6,7,10 in Arcadia) and (trts # 9 in Fort Meade) yielded about a box per tree more fruit than the control – suggesting a substantial increase in profit/acre. In addition we saw improvement in total soluble solids with use of tiger micronutrients.  These data support our data and conclusions from field experiments that micronutrients delivered to the roots can improve health and productivity of HLB-affected trees.  


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