New approach to chestnut fertilization based on the characterization on the nutritional status of chestnut orchards and studies on crop response to liming and fertilization
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abstract
Chestnut tree has been gaining economic importance in mountainous
regions of the Mediterranean basin due to the increase in the price of the nut.
However, fertilization programs for this crop are based on general information on
soil fertility without taking into account the plant since nutritional studies on this
species are practically non-existent. In the north of Portugal, for example,
companies selling fertilizers are recommending fertilization based on the
application of lime (based on the fact that pH is low) and phosphorus (based on the
fact that soils presented low levels of phosphorus when determined by the Egner-
Rhiem method). A recent characterization of the soils where the chestnut trees
grow, based on 1121 soil samples, and the assessment of the nutritional status of
the orchards, based on 278 leaf samples, as well as the conduction of field trials
with nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, boron and lime advised for quite different
fertilization proposals. Thus, chestnut trees showed very low nitrogen nutritional
status whereas phosphorus levels are not problematic. Field trials have shown that
boron and potassium appeared as important nutrients in the annual management
of the tree crop nutritional status. Chestnut tree seems to be also a plant tolerant to
the acidity of the soil and with low need for lime application.
