Abstract
The use of fertigation, coupled with micro-irrigation, has continued to increase since it was first introduced in horticultural cropping systems. This combination provides a technical solution whereby nutrients and water can be supplied to the crop with high precision in terms of time and space, thereby allowing high nutrient use efficiency. However, the correct estimation of crop nutrient and water needs is fundamental to obtaining precise plant nutrition and high nutrient use efficiency in fertigated cropping systems. This paper illustrates the state-of-the-art and new perspectives for optimal nutrient management of vegetable crops cultivated under fertigation regimes. An overall description is reported for the most valuable technologies and techniques based on simulation models, soil testing, plant testing, and related decision support systems that can be adopted for efficient fertigation. However, it should be highlighted that only a few of the above technologies and techniques are practically available and/or easy to use by growers. Therefore, much more attention should be paid in the future to the transfer of research knowledge to farmers and technical advisors.
Highlights
Fertilization and irrigation are two of the most important factors in crop production, as they strongly affect the yield and quality of cultivated crops [1,2,3]
To estimate the nutrient balance in the root zone, many models have been proposed that take into account the nutrient mineralization from organic materials and the nutrient losses due to immobilization, fixation, volatilization and leaching of different nutrient ions, [67,68,69,70,71]
Can provide four different indices related to the concentration of chlorophyll, flavonols, anthocyanins and N derived by the nitrogen balance index (NBI® ); it can be used to assess the nutritional status of the crop and the presence of stress [108]
Summary
Fertilization and irrigation are two of the most important factors in crop production, as they strongly affect the yield and quality of cultivated crops [1,2,3]. Fertigation is the agronomic operation in which fertilizer is dissolved in the irrigation water and delivered to the root zone by the irrigation system [8]. This combination provides the technical capacity for precise mineral nutrition, both spatially and temporally. Fertigation generally allows for a significant increase of nutrient use efficiency in terms of plant nutrient recovery, with much higher results (up to 90%) than in other fertilizer application systems (40–45%) [11,12]. In many areas of the world, the adoption of drip irrigation without precise irrigation management has not increased the water use efficiency of vegetable crops, and run-off of nutrients (mainly N) from the root zone has been observed. The state-of-the-art of the most used and promising methods for the optimal nutrient management of fertigated crops are here reported, which include soil testing, crop monitoring techniques and tools, and Decision Support Systems (DSSs)
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