peach leaf litter can be followed with nutrient bags as in https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10705-009-9317-0, but careful controls of pathologies and allelopathy must be kept in mind

How are you planning to study the contribution of leaf litter in meeting the nutrient requirement of crop..

The senescent leaves have a very different composition compared to young leaves.

Most of the nutrients stored in the leaves migrate to the fruit.

Other elements such as calcium accumulate in the senescent leaves

The senescent leaves could be young or mature both , so their nutrient composition will surely vary . ..

Dear Sidi,

Thanks for your information. Can you provide me some of the references on this aspect?

doi:10.1016/j.aquabot.2009.03.005.

doi:10.1016/j.femsre.2004.11.005.

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2008.09.014.

doi:10.1111/j.1469-

8137.2010.03483.x.

Excellent links , Sidi.Most important would be to work out the contribution of these senesced leaves in cutting down the nutrient requirement of such crops.And , how change in rhizosphere microbial diversity further adds in nutrient cycling...

Dear Sidi,

Thanks once again.

DOI: 10.1007/s10705-009-9317-0

DOI: 10.1007/s10705-012-9494-0

DOI: 10.1007/s11104-012-1556-1

DOI: 10.1007/s00468-010-0509-7

10.17660/ActaHortic.1997.448.83

Dear Yao,

Thank you very much for your effort.

Dear  SRIVASTAVA

Can you explain why the "Recommend" do not appear in my profile ... thank you

As students we were taught that mobile mineral nutrients (N,P,K and Mg) were removed from senescing leaves and stored in woody tissues of deciduous trees and released to the new growth in the following spring, but I have'nt got a clue as to any text books or references to this.

 Good point RA. Nutrient composition of senescent leaves will depend upon the the stage of leaf development after emergence from anthesis. Since leaves fall at different stages , it will be equally prudent to divide the entire growth period into critical growth stages and compute the nutrient composition of leaves sampled at different growth stages ...and also compute how much,  these litter fall contribute towards the meeting the nutrient requirement of the crop...

Dear Srivastava... your method may be onerous but can be applied only once to determine a reduced number of leaves on which to carry out the analyzes

You can apply such study at different growth stages to see , how much litter biomass is generated during each phenological stage , and  how much nutrients are potentially available to be recycled to be later used by plants..?

Mineralization and losses of nitrogen must be taken into account by volatilization and leaching

I suggest you catch and analyse the autumn leaf fall before it becomes litter to determine it's nutrient content. Decomposition of the litter will release these nutrients but what proportion is available or taken up by the tree is another question.

Hi, when the leaves (as source) undergo senescence it will distribute its nutrients (sugar, inorganic substances) to younger shoots or to the roots (as sink) through the phloem before it falls to the ground. Thus, it has lesser amount of food/nutrients compared to the healthy leaves. You can read the Plant Physiology by Tazi and Zeiger. I think 5th ed is available online as reference. Have a great day.

The nutrient content of senescence leaves will depend on the stage of their development . 

In agreement with Leila but I think it is necessary to take leaf samples for analysis, just after the harvest to eliminate wells

Dear colleagues

You may notice that the "recommend" do not appear in my profile

Can someone explain why?

Thank you

Thank you all for your valuable suggestions and discussions on this aspect.

Dear all, although I agree with most comments, I still feel most are concerned with detailed studies on the fate of nutrients from leaf litter. Allow me to add another perspective: It is certainly true that nutrients in leaf litter need to be taken into account. However, when nutrient management (fertiliser) recommendations have been derived using a similar set-up as used in practice - as it should be done - you cannot on top take into account the nutrients in the litter fall and deduct it from the recommended dose. It's already empirically included! Same applies to N losses from leaching and gaseous emissions. Mechanistically all correct, but only relevant when you want to look deeper into the system, for example for optimizing it further.

@Sidi: you cannot recommend your own contribution ;-)

Dear Joska,

You are absolutely right in pointing out this important aspect. We can only empirically determine the extent of nutrient contribution through the litter fall. Determination of the nutrient contents, that is actually becoming available for plant uptake, should be taken into consideration while formulating any fertilizer management schedule in temperate fruit based ecosystems. However, in majority, we do not consider this while applying fertilizers to these crops. The reason may be ascribed to insufficient knowledge on this aspect, and therefore, deeper research is required to decipher the exact contribution. Another reason may be extended to the fact that this contribution could be very small as compared to the recommended dose of fertilization.  

Good points. It is empirically considered when you implement  soil test or leaf analysis  -crop response -based  fertilizer recommendation , recommmendation includes such contribution of nutrients from litter fall...i agree with you , Joska

Dear SRIVASTAVA

I participated with 8 answers but I have no recommendation.

Are my answers false?

Am I excluded?

Can you explain to me ? Thank you

Dear Sovan,

allow me to set this right: When a fertiliser recommendation is derived using a similar system as used by growers (litterfall to the ground) the nutrients released from the litter are already empirically included in the recommendation, as confirmed by Anoop. Taking the nutrients released from litter into account by subtracting them from the fertiliser recommendation would be just wrong and would not improve the recommendation. In other words, it's not done because there is insufficient information, it's not done because it's wrong as it's empirically included/considered already (admittedly through a black box approach though).

This is not to say that the recommendations couldn't be improved having more information on litter composition and decomposition over time (release pattern!), but we should never mix and confuse approaches.

In this example deducting leaf litter nutrients from recommended doses would only be appropriate when leaf litter would have been removed in the orchards where the recommendations were developed, while growers would leave them on the ground.

Well said Joska , you are absolutely correct... 

Sidi , you dont be sad that no one is recommending your answer , let me recommend your answer to give  you boost for participation...