Increasing yield and quality of citrus by pruning and fertilization

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 %.