Nutrient Status of Soils and Plants in Some Peach Orchards of Punjab

A survey of 43 peach orchards was conducted to determine the nature and extent of nutritional disorders in the soils and plants. The soils were generally alkaline in reaction, non-saline, low in organic matter and loamy sand to sandy loam in texture. With depth the organic matter had a tendency to decrease while other soil characteristics did not vary much. Available P, Zn, S and Cu were below their respective critical leaves in about 41, 36, 16 and 5 per cent of the surface samples, the values for deeper layers being much higher. The leaf analysis revealed the prevalence of the deficiencies of N, K and S in 24, 21 and 24 per cent samples respectively. Besides these deficiencies, the hidden hunger of N, K, S, Ca, Zn, Mn and P in 74, 63, 44, 30,18, 18 and 8 per cent of samples was also observed. There seems to be no agreement between the soil test results and the leaf analysis for diagnosing the nutritional disorders in the peach orchards.