Abstract
Citrus growers are interested in making money. So, the most common practice among growers is to push young trees into early production by the application of high amounts (rates) of fertilizer. This practice can lead to disaster in terms of tree formation (canopy shape) and production stress. In contrast, when the applied fertilizer approaches both the optimum rate and the optimum N -P -K -Ca ratio for citrus, then the trees are more uniform in size and with compact canopies and the incidence of decline is less. Cordieropolis station in Sao Paula, Brazil, is the site of a large 3-component by 3 rates fertilizer experiment on young citrus (orange) trees. We shall present the statistical aspects (design, model, and the method of data analysis) of the experiment along with the surprising results obtained thus far.
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Recommended Citation
Cornell, John A.
(2000).
"A FERTILIZER-RATE EXPERIMENT INVOLVING YOUNG CITRUS TREES: DOES MORE FERTILIZER MEAN HIGHER PRODUCING TREES?,"
Conference on Applied Statistics in Agriculture.
https://doi.org/10.4148/2475-7772.1236
A FERTILIZER-RATE EXPERIMENT INVOLVING YOUNG CITRUS TREES: DOES MORE FERTILIZER MEAN HIGHER PRODUCING TREES?
Citrus growers are interested in making money. So, the most common practice among growers is to push young trees into early production by the application of high amounts (rates) of fertilizer. This practice can lead to disaster in terms of tree formation (canopy shape) and production stress. In contrast, when the applied fertilizer approaches both the optimum rate and the optimum N -P -K -Ca ratio for citrus, then the trees are more uniform in size and with compact canopies and the incidence of decline is less. Cordieropolis station in Sao Paula, Brazil, is the site of a large 3-component by 3 rates fertilizer experiment on young citrus (orange) trees. We shall present the statistical aspects (design, model, and the method of data analysis) of the experiment along with the surprising results obtained thus far.
