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. 2023 May 22;9(6):e16321.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e16321. eCollection 2023 Jun.

Influence of cultivar and fertilization treatment on the yield and leaf nutrients content of apple (Malus domestica Borkh.)

Dževad Ljavić  1 , Mirjana Radović  2 , Mirko Kulina  2 , Dejan Zejak  3 , Velibor Spalević  4 , Shuraik Kader  5   6 , Branislav Dudic  7   8 , Ruby N Michael  5   6 , Jennifer Campbell  5   6 , Lizny Jaufer  9 , Ivana Glišić  10 , Ivan Glišić  11
Affiliations

Influence of cultivar and fertilization treatment on the yield and leaf nutrients content of apple (Malus domestica Borkh.)

Dževad Ljavić et al. Heliyon. .

Abstract

Fertilisation strategy can have a big impact on apple (Malus domestica Borkh) yield, with considerable environmental and economic implications. This research paper presents the yield and leaf nutrients content of three apple cultivars fertilised with three treatment regimes over 2 years (2020-202) in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The specific apple cultivars investigated were: Jonagold Decosta, Red Idared and Gala Schnitzer®Schniga, each fertilised with three treatments: T1 (control‒without fertilization); T2 (300 kg ha-1 NPK (6:18:36) + 150 kg/ha N (calcium ammonium nitrate‒CAN)) and T3 (foliar nutrition‒mixture organic-mineral fertilizer commercially named "FitoFert Kristal" (0.6%) (10:40:10) + "FitoFert Kristal" (0.6%) (20:20:20) + "FoliFetril Ca" (0.5%) (N:Ca)) in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the period of two years (2020-2021). Significant differences of different yield categories (yield per tree, yield per hectare and yield efficiency) were found among cultivar/treatment combinations, cultivars, treatments and years. Yield per tree, yield per hectare and yield efficiency were lowest in cultivar Jonagold DeCosta. Fertilization treatment T1 significantly influenced the lowest yield per tree and yield per hectare with the magnitudes 7.55 kg tree-1 and 27.96 t ha-1, respectively. The highest yield efficiency was found in trees fertilised with treatment T3 with 9.21 55 kg tree-1, 34.11 96 t ha-1 and yield efficiency of 0.25 kg cm-2. Six mineral elements in the apple leaf, such as boron (B), calcium (Ca), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), potassium (K), and zinc (Zn), were presented in known magnitudes. The cultivar Jonagold DeCosta's leaves had the highest K, B, and Zn contents with 8500.8 mg kg-1 FW (i.e. fresh weight of leaves), 33.8 mg kg-1 FW, and 12.2 mg kg-1 FW, respectively, while cultivar Red Idared's leaves had the highest Ca, Fe, and Mg contents. The fertilisation treatment T3 influenced significantly the highest content of Ca (301.37 mg kg-1 FW), Fe (116.5 mg kg-1 FW), B (41.6 mg kg-1 FW), Mn (22.4 mg kg-1 FW), and Zn (14.9 mg kg-1 FW) in leaves, while the highest content of K was found in leaves from trees fertilised with treatment T2 (8130.5 mg kg-1 FW). The experimental outcomes have proven that the cultivar/treatment combinations, cultivars, treatments, and time duration (in years) are the key factors affecting the potassium, calcium, iron, boron, and manganese contents. It was concluded that the foliar application enables easier mobility of elements, which results in a greater number of fruits and larger fruits, which leads to a higher yield. This study is the first of its kind in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the findings of this research will pave the way for future research activities involving increasing the number of cultivars and different fertilisation treatments on apple yield and leaf mineral composition.

Keywords: Cultivar; Fertilization treatment; Leaf nutrient content; Malus domestica Borkh; Yield efficiency; Yield per tree; Yield per unit area.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.Ethical ApprovalNot ApplicableConsent to ParticipateNot ApplicableConsent to PublishNot ApplicableAuthors Contributions1. Conceived and designed the experiments - Dževad Ljavić, Mirjana Radović, Mirko Kulina, Dejan Zejak, Shuraik Kader, Velibor Spalević, Ivana Glišić and Ivan Glišić2. Performed the experiments - Dževad Ljavić, Mirjana Radović, Ivana Glišić and Ivan Glišić3. Analyzed and interpreted the data - Mirjana Radović, Shuraik Kader, Velibor Spalević, Dejan Zejak, Branislav Dudic, Ruby N. Michael, Jennifer Campbell and Lizny Jaufer,4. Contributed reagents, materials, analysis tools or data - Dževad Ljavić, Mirjana Radović, Shuraik Kader, Branislav Dudic, Velibor Spalević, Ruby N. Michael, Jennifer Campbell, Lizny Jaufer, Ivana Glišić and Ivan Glišić5. Wrote the paper - Dževad Ljavić, Mirjana Radović, Shuraik Kader, Velibor Spalević, Ruby N. Michael, Jennifer Campbell, Lizny Jaufer, Ivana Glišić and Ivan Glišić6. Internal reviewers - Velibor Spalević, Shuraik Kader Ruby N. Michael and Ivana Glišić7. Project administration – Velibor Spalević and Branislav DudicAll authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.FundingNot ApplicableCompeting interestsThe authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to discloseAvailability of data and materialsThe data and materials will be available for review upon request by the journal to the corresponding author.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The experimental apple orchard at the test station Butmir of the Federal Institute of Agriculture Sarajevo.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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