CHERRY AND APPLE NUTRITION STATE IN THE ICDP MĂRĂCINENI, ARGEȘ EXPERIMENTAL FIELD AS INFLUENCED BY NEW FERTIGATION TECHNOLOGIES

Nutrition state of three apple varieties and Gisela cherry variety grafted on four parent stocks has been studied for a three years period, 2019-2021, through foliar analysis, in the frame of a project that aimed at early multi sensor diagnosis of nutritional stress in order to optimize fertigation methods in fruit tree growing. Leaves were collected to this end from every experimental lot in all three consecutive years; the samples were brought to the laboratory, dried and ground, and mineral nutrition elements (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, iron, and manganese) were analyzed, using dedicated laboratory methodology. The analytical results highlighted a normal nutrition of the fruit tree varieties, with differences (assessed by statistic computation) determined by variety/parent stock and applied treatments, all of them inside the normal contents ranges. The only exception consists of high manganese contents in cherry leaves which don’t necessarily endanger mineral nutrition.