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soils and nutRient management foR tRopical fRuit tRees

Table 3. Effects of N fertilizer application on vegetative flushing, flowering and fruit yields of ‘Brewster’
and ‘Mauritius’ lychee trees

Fruit yield
Treatment Vegetative flush Flowering (kg tree-1)
N (g tree-1 yr-1) (% of canopy)
‘Brewster’

181 38d 60a 4.5a
362 80c 74a 2.6b
543 106b 40b 0.4c
724 140a 46b 1.8b
‘Mauritius’
181 80b 82a 13.8a
362 66b 94a 10.1b
543 40b 40b 4.6c
724 134a 20b 3.1c

Potassium (K): Potassium deficiency is not common for crops grown in calcareous soils in

Miami-Dade County. However, K is readily leached out of the root zone in sandy or gravelly

soils. Therefore split applications of K fertilizer are recommended.

Calcium (Ca): Calcareous soils have an abundance of calcium available for plant uptake.

Application of calcium fertilizer is not necessary.

Magnesium (Mg): Although Mg concentrations in calcareous soils are not low, crops
grown on calcareous soils often show Mg deficiency symptoms. The high calcium concentra-

tions in calcareous soils suppress Mg plant uptake and its translocation from the roots to the

upper plant parts. Magnesium can be applied as a dry fertilizer or as a foliar application. Foliar

applications of magnesium nitrate and magnesium sulfate have been shown to be efficacious.

Iron (Fe): Iron chlorosis is the most frequent nutritional disorder encountered in crops

grown on calcareous soils. Inorganic forms of Fe in calcareous soils are largely or almost totally

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