DRIS formulas for evaluation of nutritional status of cupuaçu trees

Jairo Rafael Machado Dias,Cleigiane De Oliveira Lemos,Daniel Vidal Perez,Paulo Guilherme Salvador Wadt,Lucielio Manoel Da Silva

doi:10.1590/s0100-06832011000600023

Jairo Rafael Machado Dias, Cleigiane De Oliveira Lemos + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/s0100-06832011000600023

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Abstract

DRIS, an Diagnosis and Recommendation Integrated System, is a tool to evaluate the nutritional status of plants. Different DRIS formulas have been proposed to improve the efficiency of the crop nutrition diagnoses. The objective of this study was to compare the nutritional diagnosis of the formulas of Beaufils (1973), of Jones (1981) and of Elwali and Gascho (1984), based on the degree of agreement in commercial orchards of Theobrama grandiflorum trees. Leaf samples of 5 to 18 year-old cupuaçu trees were collected from 153 commercial orchards in agroforestry and monoculture systems in the state of Rondonia, Brazil. Bivariate relationships between nutrition concentrations in healthy trees were used to calculate DRIS norms. DRIS indices were calculated based on the different formulas and interpreted by the Potential Fertilizer Response method, in five categories. The DRIS norms, DRIS index calculations and their interpretations were developed using the DRIS Cupuaçu computer program (www.dris.com.br). The different DRIS formulas resulted in similar diagnoses with a degree of agreement of > 90% for the nutrients N, P, K, Ca, and Mg.

Highlights

Monitoring the nutritional status of fruit trees based on the chemical analysis of the leaves has become an essential practice, underlying a more precisely adapted and financially balanced fertilization (Mourão Filho, 2004)
The DRIS evaluation method of the plant nutritional status is considered an effective tool for nutritional diagnosis in Brazil, but less usual than in other countries (Nachtigall & Dechen, 2007), because it is relatively complicated, compared to traditional methods such as critical level and sufficiency range (Prado, 2008)
The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of the different DRIS formulas in diagnosing the nutritional status of cupuaçu grown in the southeastern Amazon, with a view to identify and recommend the best method for mineral nutrition studies and the monitoring of commercial orchards of the species

Summary

Introduction

Monitoring the nutritional status of fruit trees based on the chemical analysis of the leaves has become an essential practice, underlying a more precisely adapted and financially balanced fertilization (Mourão Filho, 2004). The DRIS evaluation method of the plant nutritional status is considered an effective tool for nutritional diagnosis in Brazil, but less usual than in other countries (Nachtigall & Dechen, 2007), because it is relatively complicated, compared to traditional methods such as critical level and sufficiency range (Prado, 2008) It is promising for the nutritional diagnosis of perennial crops, for which calibration tests are generally timeconsuming and costly. Variations in the ratios are considered, which allows the development of standardized indices, which are less onerous because they do not require extensive local calibration tests The application of this method to fruit trees of different species e.g., apple, mango and citric fruits, has been promising (Nachtigall & Dechen, 2007; Wadt et al, 2007; Santana et al, 2008). The effect of fertilizer application in commercial orchards is to date unknown

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