Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

SEASONAL VARIATION IN LEAF MACRO NUTRIENT STATUS AT VARIOUS STAGES OF FRUIT DEVELOPMENT IN NECTARINE

Vijay Kumar and Vishal S. Rana

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to determine the seasonal variation in leaf macro nutrient contents of nectarine cv. Silver King at different stages of fruit development. Like peaches, nectarine fruits also showed a double sigmoid fruit growth pattern in which two exponential growth stages are interrupted by a pit hardening stage. The study was conducted to find out the variations in leaf nutrient contents coincided with the stages of sigmoid growth pattern of nectarine fruit. Leaf sampling was done at weekly interval starting from 28 days after full bloom (DAFB) was considered as first treatment (S1) to 77 DAFB was considered as last treatment (S8). The leaf samples were analyzed for the estimation of leaf macro nutrients, i.e. N, P, K, Ca and Mg at various stages of fruit development. The study revealed that the leaf nitrogen and potassium contents decreased continuously up to last sampling date. Leaf phosphorus content decreased with the advancement of the season. Leaf calcium exhibited a marked increase from the beginning to last sampling date (S8). While, magnesium showed a decline during stage II of fruit growth and after that increased gradually till the harvesting of fruits.