Comparison of citrus gardens with good and conventional agricultural practices in terms of mineral nutrition

Soil and leaf samples were taken from 80 different citrus (orange, lemon and mandarin) orchards in Adana's Karataş district, which has important citrus production areas in Turkey, and in order to compare nutritional element analysis was carried out. It was determined that the potassium (K) concentration (GAP) of the determined nutrient elements in the soil samples in the study varied between 48-432 mg kg-¹ and (KTU) between 23-490 mg kg-¹. Phosphorus (P) concentration (GAP) was found to be in the range of 0.4-148.9 mg kg-¹, (KTU) 0.5-493 mg kg-¹. It has been determined that the calcium (Ca) concentration varies between 924-2494 mg kg-¹, and the Ca and Magnesium (Mg) concentrations are at sufficient levels in the citrus orchard soils where both GAP and KTU are applied. Iron (Fe), copper (Cu) in the orchards where GAP and KTU are made ), and manganese (Mn) were found to be at a sufficient level according to the critical concentration limit values, whereas the zinc (Zn) concentration was lower than the critical concentration limit values. According to the results obtained from the leaf samples taken from the orchards with GAP and KTU, it was observed that the trees were largely insufficient in terms of K, but there was no serious nutritional problem in terms of N, P, Ca and Mg. When the average micronutrient results in the leaf samples were evaluated, it was determined that the Fe, Zn, Cu and Mn values were close to each other in both application orchards and there was no significant difference between GAP and KTU. As a result, it was observed that the fertilization habits of the GAP farmers did not change much. It has been understood that it is important to continue the applications correctly by determining the soil properties and the nutrient requirement of the plant through analyzes.