Resumen de Use of increasing rates of ammonia nitrogen in pot-grown blueberries and its effect on fruit yield and macronutrient concentration in leaves
Juan Hirzel, Violeta Muñoz, Ernesto Moya Elizondo, Octavio Lagos, Cristian Balbontín, Hamil Uribe C.
ABSTRACT Due to the smaller size of berries plants and some vegetables, their production in containers has grown worldwide. To understand the effect of increasing doses of ammoniacal N, we evaluated production, firmness and size of fruits and concentration of macronutrients in leaves of four blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) cultivars (Duke, Legacy, Cargo, and Suziblue) in south central Chile. All were grown in pots with substrate during their third growing season. The results showed an interaction of ammoniacal N dose with blueberry cultivar in most of the parameters evaluated, except for firmness and size of fruits. The increasing dose of ammoniacal N allowed higher production per plant in only two of the four cultivars without effects on the quality attributes firmness and size of fruits. Differences in production per plant and fruit firmness were obtained between cultivars, with production values per plant between 86-210, 142-219, 195-203, and 504-979 g in ʻDukeʼ, ʻLegacyʼ, ʻCargoʼ, and ʻSuziblueʼ, respectively, and greater fruit firmness in ʻSuziblueʼ. The concentrations of macronutrients in leaves showed interactions between cultivar and doses of ammoniacal N, which did not allow obtaining a single dose of ammoniacal N that generate nutritional concentration values in leaves associated with greater fruit production in the four blueberry cultivars.
