Litchi Nutrition

Essay by stuffduedCollege, UndergraduateA, October 2014

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William Thompson

TPSS 200

Nutrition of Litchi

Nutrition, the materials that are necessary to sustain life. Like humans, plants require proper nutrition for growth. This paper will contain information on the nutritional aspects of litchi; including information on concentrations and deficiencies of nutrients, and fertigation practices.

To begin, the fruit of the cultivar 'Bengal', was studied in Australia for its average concentrations of nutrients. These concentrations were based on dry matter, resulting in a nitrogen concentration of 0.85%, a phosphorus concentration of 0.19%, a potassium concentration of 1.04%, a calcium concentration of 0.10%, and a magnesium concentration of 0.18%. To enforce these figures, a 50 kg crop removed the following nutrients (grams⁄tree) in the fruit: 98 grams of nitrogen, 22 grams of phosphorus, 120 grams of potassium, 12 grams of calcium, and 21 grams of magnesium (Menzel, 2005). In the cultivar 'Kaimana', concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium was also based on the dry weight of mature fruits.

In the same order that was listed the following values were collected: 0.79%, 0.14%, 1.01%, 0.15% and 0.17%, respectively (Kawabata et. al., 2006).

Since litchi takes a good amount of time to reach maturity, information on pre-plant fertilizer quantities are lacking. The amount of fertilizer needed is based on the amount of nutrients available in the soil. Usually, soil analysis is done 6 months before planting to allow time to fertilize for optimum production (Menzel, 2005).

In some countries where litchi is cultivated, there are standards for leaf nutrients. Despite this, most countries make their decision on fertilizer based on canopy sizes, fruit loads, or tree age. In Guangdong, China, 10-year-old plants that carry 100 kilograms of fruit are recommended; 600 grams of nitrogen, 40 grams of phosphorus, and 250 grams of potassium to be applied before flowering; 200 grams...