THE USE OF SOIL AND PLANT ANALYSIS FOR THE FERTILIZER RECOMMENDATION DEVELOPMENT FOR VEGETABLE CROPS

The different methods of determining the nutrient fertilizer needs are to be used for appropriate fertilization of vegetable crops grown outdoors and in greenhouses.
Field experiment may be regarded as the standard method.
The fertilizer field experiments should be carried on in the typical vegetable rotations during the period of at least several rotations and should include – 5 or better – 8 fertilizer combinations.

According to the results of such experiments done already the particular vegetable crops show in the same rotation different fertilizer needs.
For example on the clay loam soil of the Mordowski Experimental Station the tomato plant has shown the greatest phosphorus fertilizer needs, the cabbage plant – the greatest nitrogen fertilizer needs and the carrot plant – the greatest potassium fertilizer needs [23].

The fertilizer field experiments are labour consumming and very expensive and therefore other methods of determining fertilizer needs – soil analysis, leaf analysis and visual observations of plants are very important in practice.

In the fertilizer recommendations development the biological features of plant nutrition should be also taken into account: the total nutrient need of the plant and the dynamic of nutrient uptake in respect to different growth phases or periods.
Attention should be paid to the Homes method of systematic variants [13] that enables to find out the optimal level of nutrient intensity and balance and to the

Symposium on Nutrition and Fertilization of Vegetables

K.P. Magnickij

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1973.29.1