Suppose soil or leaf tests are done in a fruit orchard, some nutrients are deficient, some are in the excess range and others are in a normal range.
Different methods are in practice i.e. leaf analysis complimented by soil analysis; DRIS and SSNM (Site specific nutrient management) to workout nutrient requirement in fruit crops.
It is very common to find that an excess of one nutrient cause an induced-deficiency of another nutrient in fruit trees. For that reason, the first recommendation would be to try to reduce the concentration of the element that is in excess... many times it increases the concentration of the deficient one without adding extra fertilizer. However, it's hard to know if that is your case without knowing which nutrients are deficient, which ones are in the excess range, and some soil characteristics...
Hi,
In addition to a leaf analysis a soil test would be very helpful in an orchard situation.
The leaf analysis does not reveal the actual presents of nutrients in the root zone of the plant but only which nutrients the plant was able to absorb out of the soil solution.
Factors like pH, base saturation, CEC, salinity, etc. will directly affect the availability of soil minerals for a plant. Therefore it is important to see what the chemical properties of the soil are and how to ameliorate them to facilitate the nutrient uptake for a plant.
A soil test will also show possible imbalances or a lack of nutrients like the base saturation that governs the availability of your cations like calcium, magnesium and potassium. As Mr. Melgar stated an oversupply of one can lead to deficiency in the other.
A comparison with the leaf analysis will give you an idea which of the present soil nutrients actually made it into the plant and which are deficient in both and therefore require fertilizer application.
A further bonus is, that usually soil labs will usually ask you what type of crop you are growing and they will compare your analysis to their data bases of required nutrients for certain crops and based on that they will even give you recommendations on a fertilization program.
There are several approaches for optimization of mineral nutrition in cultivated plants. To get some idea, please find attached paper
Good answers already. You need leaf and soil analyses, and you can also fine tune the requirements using historical yields as well as predicted yield in the upcoming season.
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