NUTRIENT UPTAKE BY FIVE INTENSIVELY MANAGED TROPICAL FOOD CROPS

Héber Irizarry, José Vicente-Chandler and Edmundo Rivera

No 261633, 19th Annual Meeting, September 11-17, 1983, Puerto Rico from Caribbean Food Crops Society

Abstract: There is little information available on the uptake of nutrients by well managed tropical food crops, particularly as related to stage of growth. The present studies were carried out to provide this information which is important as a basis for the fertilization of five important food crops of the tropics. Entire plants of these crops growing at adequate levels of fertility were dug up at intervals over an entire cropping season, divided into leaves, stems, fruits and roots, dried, weighed and analyzed for N, P, K, Ca and Mg. With intensive management, taniers (Xanthosoma spp.), cassava (Manihot esculenta), pigeon peas (Cajanus cajan), plantains (Musa acuminata χ M. balbisiana), and yams (Dioscorea rotundata) under humid tropical conditions yielded 4.2, 10.5, 2, 8.0 and 51.6 metric tons/ha of edible dry matter, respectively. Maximum uptake of nutrients in kg/ha by the crops were: Taniers = Ν - 125, Ρ - 15, Κ - 156, Ca - 25; Cassava = Ν - 204, Ρ - 12, Κ - 222, Mg - 33, Ca - 86; Pigeon peas = Ν - 216, Ρ - 12, Κ - 168, Mg - 19, Ca - 54; Plantains = Ν - 275, Ρ - 24, Κ - 569, Mg - 48, Ca - 136 and Yams = Ν - 190, Ρ - 25, Κ - 215, Mg - 90, Ca - 35. Edible dry matter produced per kg of NPK used by the plant was 11.9, 24.0, 14.2, 9.2 and 5.1 for yams, cassava, taniers, plantains, and pigeon peas, respectively.

Keywords: Crop Production/Industries; Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 17
Date: 1983-09-11
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:cfcs83:261633

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.261633

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