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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Sustainable Perennial Crops Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #372476
Research Project: Characterizing and Evaluating the Genetic Diversity and Horticultural Value of Genetic Resources for Cacao and Other Tropical tree crops Economically important to the United States

Location: Sustainable Perennial Crops Laboratory

Title: Interactions between soil, leaves and beans nutrient status and dry biomass of beans and pod husk of forastero cacao: An exploratory study

Author
item ARAUJO, QUINTINO - University Of Santa Cruz - Brazil
item LOUREIRO, GUILHERME - Autonomous University Of The State Of Mexico
item AHNERT, DARIO - University Of Santa Cruz - Brazil
item VALDEZ, RODRIGO - Autonomous University Of The State Of Mexico
item Baligar, Virupax

Submitted to: Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/6/2020
Publication Date: 2/19/2020
Citation: Araujo, Q., Loureiro, G.A., Ahnert, D., Valdez, R., Baligar, V.C. 2020. Interactions between soil, leaves and beans nutrient status and dry biomass of beans and pod husk of forastero cacao: An exploratory study. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis. https://doi.org/10.1080/00103624.2020.1729369.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00103624.2020.1729369

Interpretive Summary: Productivity, and mineral nutrient levels of cacao trees are directly related to nutrient status of the soil. Understanding the interrelationships in the soil-plant system of cacao agroecosystems could assist in improving production potentials of cacao grown on infertile acidic soils found in tropical Central and South America. In this paper, we report the use of exploratory linear correlation analysis and its use in predicting relationships between the nutrient contents of the soil, leaves and beans of cacao trees with the dry biomass of cacao beans and pod husks. This information will be useful to cacao farmers and extension worker in determinating effective fertilizer management practices to correct nutrient deficiencies that might be present in soils under cacao thereby improving cacao bean yield potentials

Technical Abstract: In cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) crop the understanding of the multiple relationships between bean and pod husk biomass and mineral nutrition in the soil-plant system is scarce. The main objective of this work is to verify the linear, bivariate and multivariate relationships, between the mineral nutrient contents of the soil, leaves and beans of 53 cacao trees with known dry biomass of cacao beans and pod husk, and further graphically identifying the consistency of these information’s. For this study, samples of soil, leaves and fruits (pod husk and beans) were collected from each cacao trees, for analysis of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu mineral nutrient contents. The interpretation of the results by the exploratory analysis technique linked to the linear correlation analysis proved to be an essential tool to support studies related to mineral nutrition in the soil-plant system. The N and K contents of cacao leaves were directly related to the high and very high dry biomass classes of cacao beans. Levels of exchangeable Ca and Mg in the soil were inversely correlated with the dry biomass of cacao pod husk (DCBH), in contrast to results with the positive correlations of these variables in the leaves and cocoa beans data sets. The micronutrients Zn, Mn, Fe and Cu in leaves are shown to be more positively associated with DBCH than dry biomass classes of cocoa beans. Iron, Mn and Cu in the beans show such similar pattern of association with dry biomass of pod husk and beans.