Margarida Arrobas

Olive Yields and Tree Nutritional Status during a Four-Year Period without Nitrogen and Boron Fertilization

Nitrogen (N) and boron (B) are mobile elements in soil. Therefore, the application of these nutrients is typically performed annually, as a single dose, or even split into several fractions in the case of N. In olive (Olea europaea L.), however, controversial literature has suggested that yearly application of N may not be required. In the case of B, some authors indicated that one single application is sufficient for 3 or 4 years. Thus, the effects of these elements on olive yield, leaf N and B concentrations, as well as soil available N and B were investigated during a field trial performed in an olive orchard located in northeast Portugal, in which N and B were not applied for four consecutive growing seasons. Fertilizer treatments consisted of the following: the control, which was a complete fertilization plan where N and B were included (N + B treatment); –N treatment, with N excluded from the fertilization plan; and –B treatment, with B excluded. Available soil N and B were estimated from a pot experiment with Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum L.) and from chemical laboratory extractions. Olive yield decreased significantly in the –N treatment in comparison to the control. A slight yield reduction in the –B treatment in comparison to the control was also observed. Leaf N and B concentrations decreased significantly in the –N and –B treatments, respectively, in comparison to the N + B treatment. Soil available N and B at the end of the experiment were significantly lower in the –N and –B treatments, respectively, in comparison to the N + B control. The results showed a continuous decrease in olive yield and leaf N and B concentrations, which reflected the reduction in soil-available N and B in the treatments lacking the respective nutrient. Therefore, it seems prudent to recommend adjustments to the rates of N and B every year to prevent reduction in tree crop performance and improve nutrient-use efficiency.

Effect of Soil Management on Olive Yield and Nutritional Status of Trees in Rainfed Orchards

Studies on the effect of groundcover treatments on perennial tree crops have been common in recent decades. However, few have included leaf analysis as an aid to understand the effects of groundcover treatments on tree crop growth and yield, in particular in rainfed olive orchards. Field experiments took place in northeast Portugal, over the course of eight consecutive years, in two commercial orchards selected on the basis of their contrasting situation regarding the floor-management system before the trial started. An orchard located in Bragança, currently managed as a sheep-walk, received the following treatments: sheep-walk (SW), where the natural vegetation was managed with a flock of sheep; mechanical cultivation (MC), which consisted of two tillage trips per year in the spring; and glyphosate (Gly), where the herbicide was applied once during the first fortnight of April. Another orchard near Mirandela, currently managed by tillage, received the following treatments: mechanical cultivation (MC); glyphosate (Gly); and residual herbicide (RH), where an herbicide with a residual component was applied late in the winter. The trees that underwent Gly treatments produced the greatest tree crop growth and olive yield. The worst results were achieved with the SW and MC treatments in the Bragança and Mirandela experiments, respectively. Leaf nitrogen (N) and boron (B) concentrations were significantly higher and lower, respectively, in the treatments that caused the higher and lower olive yields in both experiments. In the Mirandela orchard, where the leaf potassium (K) concentrations were close to the lower limit of the adequate range, the leaf K levels followed the pattern registered for N and B. The results showed a strong link between tree crop nutritional status and tree crop growth and olive yield. The groundcover treatments that facilitate nutrient absorption by olive trees yielded more crops.

Effect of composted sewage sludge amendment on soil nitrogen and phosphorus availability

Abstract Municipal sewage sludge previously composted with sawdust (CSS) was applied to an eutric sandy cambisol at rates of 7.5, 15.0, 22.5, and 30 g#lbkg‐1. Incubation and pot experiments were conducted to evaluate CSS effectiveness on nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) soil availability and on plant nutrition. The CSS rates did not increase soil mineral N and had little effect on organic P and on labile forms of P. Efficiency of total applied P was 17% for the soil labile forms and 4.8% for the resin extractable fraction. In contrast, CSS significantly increased hydroxide extractable inorganic P and nonextractable soil P fraction. The major portion of the increment on nonextractable forms was at the expense of HC1 extractable P fraction [calcium (Ca)‐bounded], dominant on the original CSS. Thus, chemical rather than biological reactions lead to the redistribution of CSS‐borne P to more firmly held forms after its application to the soil. Ryegrass dry matter yield, N content, and N uptake did not increase ...

Comparative Boron Nutritional Diagnosis for Olive Based on July and January Leaf Samplings

In this work, diagnosis of boron (B) nutritional status based on leaf B concentrations was compared for the most common leaf-sampling times for olive trees, January and July. For this purpose, field experiments were conducted over 4 years (2003–2006) in two rainfed olive groves located in Mirandela and Bragança, northeastern Portugal. Leaf samples were collected in January and July and analyzed for B by standard procedures. Fruit harvest occurred in December of each year. The crops followed typical alternate fruiting cycles. During the 4 years of the study, mean olive yields in the Bragança orchard fluctuated, yielding 3.6, 28.1, 5.5, and 22.7 kg tree−1. Yield variation per individual tree was also great. In the Bragança orchard and in the 2004 harvest, yields ranged from 1.2 to 52.7 kg tree−1. Leaf B concentrations also varied greatly between individual trees. In the Bragança orchard in the July sampling of 2004, values for individual trees varied from 12.2 and 23.7 mg B kg−1. From a total of 16 scatterplots generated from the relationship between leaf B concentrations and olive yields, 10 significant linear relationships were established; six of them were related to July sampling dates and four were related to January dates. The number of significant linear relationships established between leaf B concentration and olive yield was used as a criterion of the accuracy of the B nutritional diagnosis, because this represented the lowest experimental variability. By using this criterion, the July sampling date proved as better for B nutritional diagnosis, although the difference from January sampling date was not sufficient to disregard this. Leaf B concentrations were consistently greater in July than in January. Averaged across the 4 years of the study in both orchards, the difference was 4.3 mg B kg−1. This difference should be taken into account in the interpretation of leaf analysis results when B levels are close to the deficient critical concentration.

Response of stevia to nitrogen fertilization and harvesting regime in northeastern Portugal

ABSTRACT The adaptation of stevia to the growing conditions of NE Portugal is assessed, including the tolerance of this species to cold temperatures, and the potential to produce biomass when grown as an annual crop and when subjected to various nitrogen (N) rates and two harvesting regimes. Almost all the plants died during the winter of 2014 (minimum temperatures peaked at −8.0°C), making it necessary to replant the crop the following spring. With the best cutting regime (double cut) and N rate (150 kg N ha−1), 1514.4 and 2390.0 kg ha−1 of dry leaves were produced, respectively, in 2014 and 2015. Leaf chlorophyll concentrations estimated by the SPAD (Soil and Plant Analysis Development)-502 chlorophyll meter and a NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) carried out by the Field Scout CM 1000 spectroradiometer showed significant differences among N rates, proving to be good indicators of plant N nutritional status. Based on the leaf analysis, provisional sufficiency ranges for N are proposed, namely 25–35 g kg−1 for mid-summer and 15–25 g kg−1 for early autumn. The fluorescence of chlorophyll a and the transient fluorescence intensity performed by the OS-30p+ fluorometer failed to show any stress induced by no-N control treatments in comparison to N-treated plants.

Influence of Sampling Date on Soil Nitrogen Availability Indices

In spite of the great effort that has been devoted to the search for a chemical laboratory index to predict nitrogen (N) mineralization capability of soils, the results have not yet been fully satisfactory. A continued effort is still needed to increase the knowledge of the sources of variation that influence potentially available soil N. The time of sampling has received little attention, taking into account its potential to influence N-mineralization patterns. In this work, soil samples from three different agrosystems, consisting of a double-crop sequence of small grains and maize, an intensively grazed pasture, and a rainfed olive orchard, were collected at different dates. Several chemical extractions were performed, and the results were correlated with N uptake by turnip (Brassica campestris, L.) grown in a pot experiment. Kjeldahl N was the chemical test that best correlated (R 2 = 0.621) with N uptake by turnip. Kjeldahl N showed great versatility relative to the origin of the soil samples. However, it was not very sensitive to the time of sampling. It did not detect changes occurring in the soil over a short period of time. Soil inorganic N showed the second highest coefficient of correlation (R 2 = 0.483) with N uptake by turnip. In contrast to that observed with Kjeldahl N, soil inorganic N appeared as an index that can vary greatly over the short term. The hot saline potassium chloride (KCl) extractions gave generally fair results. The poorest, however, were obtained with the ultraviolet absorption of extracts of 0.01 mol L−1 sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) measured at 250- and 260-nm wavelengths.

Urban agriculture in Bragança, Northeast Portugal: assessing the nutrient dynamic in the soil and plants, and their contamination with trace metals

Abstract Urban agriculture is increasing in both developing and developed countries. In spite of its multiple benefits, urban agriculture can cause unwanted aspects such as environmental damage and health risks to consumers. This work was carried out in a social garden project developed by the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, Portugal. It checked if cropping practices were environmentally sound and monitored the quality of the edible vegetables, in particular their concentration of trace metals. Bragança is a small city of 25,000 inhabitants located in Northeastern Portugal. In this study the plant nutritional status and the inorganic nitrogen (N) levels in the soil as indirect indicators of the risk of N loss to the environment; and the concentrations of trace metals in the soil and plant tissues as a measure of the exposure of gardeners to trace metals were studied. The results showed the existence of low leaf N concentrations, often close to the deficiency range of the respective species, and also low inorganic N levels in the soil during the winter, suggesting reduced risks of nitrate leaching and denitrification. Trace metal concentrations were low in the soils when compared with the limits set by national and international legislation. As a result, the content of trace metals in edible plant parts was also low. The positive results found in this urban agriculture project might be due to its organic farming basis and to the absence of major sources of pollution in the vicinity of the gardens. This information is useful to local gardeners, since they can trust the products they take home, but also to other urban agriculture projects in even more populated cities.

A comparison of a pasture ley with a maize monoculture on the soil fertility and nutrient release in the succeeding crop

ABSTRACT Specialization within agriculture has been a key factor in increasing farm income. The production systems have become increasingly simple, since farmers only grow a small number of crops which have a favourable market price. However, monocultural systems require increasing use of agrochemicals leading to unsustainable environmental costs. In this work, the soil fertility of two plots in a crop rotation previously grown for 5 years as pasture or maize monoculture was evaluated. In the pasture, the upper 0–20 cm soil layer sequestered 17.4 Mg organic C ha−1 and accumulated 403 kg N ha−1 more than under maize monoculture. Analytical data from pot experiments showed that soil samples from the pasture plot released significantly more mineral N than soil samples from the maize monoculture. Maize dry matter (DM) yields in 2012 and 2013 were 15.3 and 10.0 Mg ha−1 in the pasture plot and 8.8 and 8.4 Mg ha−1 in the maize monoculture plot. Nitrogen recoveries by maize were 175.4 and 68.0 kg ha−1 in the pasture and 78.3 and 50.3 kg ha−1 in the maize monoculture plot. The pool of organic matter accumulated during the pasture phase immobilized important nutrients which benefited the succeeding crop as the organic substrate was mineralized.

Management of Nitrogen-Rich Legume Cover Crops as Mulch in Traditional Olive Orchards

A low-input agricultural system needs a natural source of nitrogen (N). Legume species can fix great amounts of N that can be subsequently used by a nonlegume crop. In this study three legume cover crops were grown in traditional olive orchards in northeastern Portugal from October 2009 to May 2010, and the aboveground biomass was mechanically destroyed and left on the ground as a mulch. In the following growing season, from October 2010 to May 2011, two nitrophilic plant species were grown in circular microplots of 154 mm surrounded by polyvinyl chloride rings to assess the soil N availability. The N fixed by the legume cover crops, estimated by the difference technique, was shown to vary from 79.7 to 187.5 kg N ha−1. The nitrophilic plant species identified a small peak of soil available N in the autumn of 2010, probably resulting from the mineralization of the root system of the legume species. In the next spring, the increase of soil-available N in the plots where the legume cover crops had been grown, in comparison to the control plot, was residual. The great amounts of N present in the mulched materials seem to disappear without having entered the soil. Mulching with high-N content biomass may be troublesome due to the high risk of N losses probably by ammonia (NH3) volatilization.

Sufficiency ranges for lemon balm and nutrient removals in aboveground phytomass

ABSTRACT A set of fertilizer experiments were conducted during three growing seasons with the aim of establishing sufficiency ranges and crop nutrient removals for Melissa officinalis L. Critical nutrient concentrations were determined by the Cate–Nelson method or by removing 10% of extreme high and low values, respectively if a positive response to a given nutrient was recorded or not. Sufficiency ranges for macro, micronutrients, and SPAD-readings were set as: 27.0–40.0 g N kg−1; 0.8–2.7 g P kg−1 (May–August); 1.5–3.8 g P kg−1 (September–November); 10.0–25.0 g K kg−1 (May–August); 18.0–32.0 g K kg−1 (September–November); 5.0–25.0 g Ca kg−1; 3.5–8.5 g Mg kg−1; 18–125 mg B kg−1; 5–25 mg Cu kg−1; 75–500 mg Fe kg−1; 20–300 mg Zn kg−1; 30–250 g Mn kg−1; 30–45 SPAD-units. These results will allow laboratories to use plant analysis as an important tool in improving the fertilizer recommendations for this species.