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: 12/11/2020
Project: 18-061C   Year: 2020
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).  Objective 1 which is the continuation of # 00124558 included 10 treatments.Altogether currently there are 25 treatments of citrus nutrition that are being compared to control. Within this quater the we successfully analyzed data collected from 25 treatments. In addition, we have applied fertilizer for summer. In a detailed soil and leaf nutrient analysis we found that due to continuous application Tiger Sul fertilizer for almost 5 years, the soil pH in the wetted zone of the tree has dropped signifcantly. The lowering of soil pH is more pronounced in Arcadia site than Fort Meade. Therefore, in order to rebpound the soil pH to range of 5.8-6.5, we have applied dolomite and for rest of the year we are continuing with non-tiger sul micronutirent. The rate od micronutirents is still kept the same and are soil applied with bulk fertilizer. We are continuously montiroing soil pH and making adjumstments as needed. Based on this information about soil pH we are getting ready to start an initiative to educate growers on usefulness of continuously monitoring soil pH.We will be conducting workshop, webinar as well as writing trade journal article. 


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