Nutrient Removal Amounts by Major Vegetable Crops in Texas

A balance between nutrient inputs and crop removal is required for effective long-term crop production. Although nutrient removal estimates are readily available for many field crops, such values for fruit and vegetable crops are rare. The objective of this project is to determine nutrient removal values for major fruits and vegetable crops grown in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas. Nutrient removal rates from commercial citrus orchards (grapefruit and orange) were estimated in the 2011 to 2012 growing season. Ten grapefruit and five orange orchards were sampled for this investigation.

Grapefruit yield averaged 12 t/A fresh fruit. Nutrient removal for grapefruit averaged 23.5 lb N/A, 2.5 lb P/A, and 27.2 lb K/A. Orange yield averaged 8 t/A, and removal for orange averaged 23.4 lb N/A, 2.3 lb P/A, and 24.5 lb K/A. Estimates for total removal by grapefruit in 2012 were lower than those in 2011 due to in part to the lower fruit yield levels in 2012. Orange removal was not measured in 2011, but only in 2012. When put in terms of unit of production, there were substantial differences in grapefruit P and K removal between the two years, suggesting that removal is impacted by temporal and spatial variability. Nevertheless, the estimates collected in the course of this study give a broad view of nutrient removal by fruits. TX-55