Generating Gerbera Foliar Nutrient Interpretation Ranges with a Meta-analysis Sufficiency Range Approach

Foliar tissue analysis is an important method for diagnosing nutritional problems in greenhouse crops. Currently, gerbera foliar tissue standards are based on small sample populations and limited rate studies. This study expands prior work and presents a novel approach to creating data-driven nutrient sufficiency ranges of deficient, low, sufficient, high, and excessive, which were not previously available for gerbera. A hybrid meta-analysis sufficiency range approach (SRA) was used to determine the best fit model between Normal, Gamma, and Weibull distributions based on the lowest Bayesian information criteria This study establishes the use of a hybrid-SRA for the creation of refined interpretation ranges of gerbera foliar nutrient analysis results with a higher degree of precision than what is currently available to the greenhouse industry for diagnosing fertility status.