Soil Nutrient Status and Leaf Nutrient Norms in Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) Plantations Grown on Southern Plateau of India
Oil palm is a heavy feeder of nutrients and requires balanced and adequate supply of nutrients for optimum growth and yield. Information regarding soil nutrient status and leaf nutrient concentration is very much required for proper fertilizer application. Therefore, a survey was conducted for assessment of soil nutrient status and leaf nutrient concentration in 42 oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq) plantations in the state of Karnataka, situated in southern plateau of India. In surface soil layers, soil acidity (pH), electrical conductivity (EC) and organic carbon (OC) content ranged from 4.91 to 8.74, 0.10 to 2.54 dS m−1 and 1.17 to 28.9 g kg−1 respectively. The values of available potassium (K) (NH4OAc–K), phosphorus (P) (Olsen-P) and exchangeable calcium (Ca) (Exch. Ca) varied from 31.2 to 386 mg kg−1, 7.69 to 242 mg kg−1 and 156 to 1273 mg kg−1 respectively. The concentration of exchangeable magnesium (Mg) (Exch. Mg), available sulphur (S) (CaCl2-S) and hot water soluble boron (B) (HWB) ranged from 52.8 to 307 mg kg−1, 2.25 to 73.5 mg kg−1 and 2.29 to 16.0 mg kg−1 respectively. Diagnosis and recommendation integrated system (DRIS) norms were established for different nutrient expressions and it was used to compute DRIS indices. As per DRIS indices, the order of requirement of nutrients in the region was found to be K > P > nitrogen (N) > B > Mg. Optimum leaf nutrient ranges varied from 2.24 to 2.97 %, 0.08 to 0.14 % and 0.78 to 0.91 % for N, P and K respectively, from 0.74 to 1.53 %, 0.25 to 0.98 % and 0.72 to 1.09 % for Ca, Mg and S respectively and from 5.71 to 31.0 mg kg−1, 7.42 to 12.9 mg kg−1, 33.6 to 58.6 mg kg−1, 82.5 to 681 mg kg−1 and 82.8 to 936 mg kg−1 for B, copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), manganese (Mn) and iron (Fe) respectively. On the basis of DRIS derived sufficiency ranges, 57, 24, 62, 3, 3, 9, 7, 5, and 26 % leaf samples were having less than optimum concentration of N, P, K. Ca, Mg, S, B, Cu and Mn respectively. The optimum ranges developed can be used as a guide for routine diagnostic and advisory purpose for balanced utilization of fertilizers.
Dris calculation methods for evaluating the nutritional status of oil palm in the Eastern Amazon
ABSTRACT This study aimed to evaluate six Diagnosis and Recommendation Integrated System (DRIS) calculation methods, including two ways to choose the nutrient ratio [F (Letzsch) or R (Nick) values] combined with three functions (Beaufils, Jones, or Elwali and Gascho), and to generate nutritional diagnoses for oil palm. A total of 144 foliar samples in 33 plots in the Eastern Amazon, Brazil, were used. Except for potassium (K) in all calculation methods, the DRIS indices showed no correlation with soil nutrients. Regardless of the formula, the nutritional balance index correlated with the productivity (significant r values) and similar diagnostics were obtained. These diagnoses were reliable according to the chi-square test (χ2), and most observed frequencies presented χ2 calculated less than χ2 tabulated. The average frequencies of samples with nutrient deficiency were 51%, 42%, 37%, 35%, 32%, 30%, 30%, 25%, 20%, 12%, and 12% for samples with nitrogen (N), boron (B), manganese (Mn), sulfur (S), K, copper (Cu), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), calcium (Ca), phosphorus (P), and magnesium (Mg), respectively. All tested DRIS methods may be used, and their diagnoses indicate the most common nutritional deficiencies in oil palm.
Current status and new norms of nitrogen nutrition for grapevine (Vitis vinifera)
A survey was conducted in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka. to study the nutritional status of nitrogen in grapevine (Vuis vinifera L.) and soils of vineyards. The new norms for classification of N status in plants and soils were developed using diagnosis and recommendation integrated system (DRIS). The optimum N in petiole was 0.5~I .25% in I Anab-e-Shahi' and 0.87-1.61% in 'Thompson Seedless'. The optimum status of available N in soil of ‘Anab-e-Shahi' was 179-628 ppm and of 'Thompson Seedless 103-262 ppm. For 'Anab-e-Shahi' the optimum dose of N was 1.09-3.48 and 1.16-3.75 kg/plant/year for Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka respectively, and for 'Thompson Seedless' was 0.28-0.74, 0.58-1.54 and 0.35-0.93 kg/plant/year for Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka respectively.