Fertilizing Young Navel Orange Trees with Sulfur and Wood Ash as a Source of Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract

This study was carried out during two successive seasons 2012 and 2013 to investigate the effect of sulfur & wood ash and their combination on soil pH & EC, vegetative growth and leaf mineral content of the four years old Navel orange trees budded on sour orange rootstock grown in a private orange orchard in Qalubia Governorate Egypt on clay loam soil. In order to define the suitable wood ash and sulfur combination addition at the first few years of tree planting in the orchard which induce great tree growth and optimum leaf mineral content. The study was involved two levels of sulfur (S1= 0 and S2=500 g tree/year) and five levels of wood ash (W1= 0, W2= 250, W3=500, W4=1000 and W5=2000 g/tree/year). It could be concluded that soil pH and Ec values were increased by increasing wood ash level. So, it must be mixed with other compound decreased soil pH especially under our soil condition in Egypt. May be sulfur is good source for this purpose. Vegetative growth of Navel orange trees was increased slightly by applying 500g sulfur/tree in combination with all wood ash levels, except (S2 x W1) treatment. Regarding leaf mineral content, combining sulfur with wood ash increased the macro- and micronutrients content of Navel orange trees compared to applied wood ash alone. Generally, different combinations gave high increase in mineral content and in most cases treatment (S2 x W3) gave the highest values of N, P, K, Mg and Mn in leaves.