Effect of Soil Nutrient Status on Yield and Quality of Sweet Orange (Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck) in YSR District of Andhra Pradesh
A. Ramanjaneya Reddy *
Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, S. V. Agricultural College, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh-517502, India.
B. Ravindra Reddy
Department of Statistics and Mathematics, S. V. Agricultural College, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh-517502, India.
P. Venkataram Muni Reddy
Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, S. V. Agricultural College, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh-517502, India.
P. Sudhakar
Department of Crop Physiology, S. V. Agricultural College, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh-517502, India.
V. Munaswamy
Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, S. V. Agricultural College, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh-517502, India.
K. Venkaiah
Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, S. V. Agricultural College, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh-517502, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The present study was conducted to determine the effect of soil nutrient status on fruit yield and quality of sweet orange (Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck) in YSR district of Andhra Pradesh, India. To carry out this investigation fifty sweet orange orchards aged between 12 to 13 years were selected and soil samples were collected from these orchards at 0-30 cm and 30-60 cm depth. Majority of the soils of the study area were deficit in available nutrients such as Zn, Fe, N, P and Mn, but Ca, Mg, S, K and Cu were in optimum to high range.
The soil mineral nutrients like N, P and K influenced the fruit weight significantly and positively (r = 0.469**, r = 0.446** and r = 0.415**, respectively), but fruit yield and fruit juice per cent had significant positive relation with soil N (r = 0.519** and r = 0.353*) and P (r = 0.409** and r = 0.364**) only. Soil P had a significant positive correlation with TSS (r = 0.438**). Soil Fe and Mn had a significant negative correlation with titrable acidity (r = -0.371** and r = -0.292*, respectively). Soil Mn had a significant negative correlation with fruit TSS (r = -0.311*).
Keywords: Sweet orange, soil macro nutrients, soil micro nutrients, fruit yield, fruit quality, YSR District.