Increasing yield and quality of citrus by pruning and fertilization

Sakhidin1, Jaime A.Teixeira da Silva2, Anung Slamet Dwi Purwantono1 and Slamet Rohadi Suparto1

1Faculty of Agriculture, Jenderal Soedirman University, Jl. Dr. Soeparno, Purwokerto 51123, Central Java, Indonesia; 2Independent, Ikenobe 3011-2, Kagawa-ken, 761-0799, Japan. Corresponding e-mail: sakhidin@unsoed.ac.id

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37855/jah.2021.v23i03.44

Key words: Citrus nobilis L., pruning intensity, doses of N, P, K fertilizers, sugar
Abstract: Pruning and fertilization are factors that can determine the production and quality of citrus. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of pruning intensity and fertilizer doses of N (nitrogen), P (phosporus), and K (potassium) on citrus production and quality. The study was carried out in a citrus orchard in Central Java, Indonesia, over the course of two seasons, 2016-17 and 2017-18.The experiment was conducted as a two-factorial, completely randomized block design where the first factor was pruning intensity, namely 0, 5, 10, and 15 % of the total number of branches per tree while the second factor was doses of N, P, and K fertilizers, namely 0, 2, and 4 % of the weight of harvested citrus fruit in the previous season. The result showed that increasing doses of N, P, K fertilizers from 0 to 4 % increased fruit set, harvested fruits, fruit size, content of vitamin C, sugar, and soluble solid. The highest fruit set, weight of harvested fruits, and content of vitamin C were achieved by pruning intensity of 10 %.



Journal of Applied Horticulture