SOIL-PLANT AND FRUIT QUALITY RELATIONSHIPS IN INTEGRATED AND ORGANIC APPLE PRODUCTION

From a 40 apple (Malus × domestica Borkh.) cultivar collection grafted on M26 rootstock at a spacing of 4 × 1.5 m (East Hungary), four apple cultivars (‘Idared’, ‘Red Elstar’, ‘Egri Piros’ and ‘Reka’) were selected to investigate the soil-plant and fruit quality relationships occurring under integrated and organic production systems.
The soil type was acidic sand low in clay and humus.
Available nutrients (N_min and Zn) corresponded to the properties and type of the examined soil.
Satisfactory amounts of P, K and Mn corresponded to the applied fertilizers.
Significantly higher pH, N_min, P, K and Zn content was measured in soil of integrated production systems due to applied fertilizer management.
Leaf nutrient concentrations related to the content of soil nutrients.
Production system significantly affected all examined leaf nutrient concentrations, but the effect was inconsistent between production systems.
However, significantly higher leaf K was measured in all cultivars under integrated production.
Our results confirmed earlier findings that leaf nutrient concentrations showed differences among cultivars.

XXVII International Horticultural Congress – IHC2006: International Symposium on Sustainability through Integrated and Organic Horticulture

J. Racskó, P.T. Nagy, Z. Szabó, I. Gonda, M. Soltész, J. Nyéki, M.C. Dussi

apple, integrated and organic fruit production, soil, plant and fruit analysis

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2008.767.35