Anticipation of the period for foliar diagnosis in 'Pêra' orange tree in Amazon state, Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the possibility of anticipating the period for foliar diagnosis in 'Pêra' orange tree. Twenty seven representative orchards from the orange production region of the state of Amazonas, Brazil, were monitored during the crop season of 2011/2012. Nutritional composition diagnoses (CND) were performed in leaf samples taken in the flowering stage and when the tree had fruits with three and six months of age (traditional period for nutritional monitoring). Orchards with productivity higher than 25 Mg ha^-1 were selected for establishing reference standards. The nutritional status of orange varied with the foliar sample period, which made it necessary to establish specific CND norms for each period. With the anticipation of foliar diagnosis to the flowering period, it was observed that leaf concentrations of N, P, K, and Cu increased and the ones of Ca decreased. The anticipation of 'Pêra' orange foliar diagnosis depends on CND nutritional standards specific to each sampling period.