THE PRODUCTIVITY OF WINTER APPLE TREE VARIETIES DEPENDING ON FERTILIZER DOSES ON THE LEACHED CHERNOZEM OF THE STAVROPOL UPLAND

Abstract

The apple tree, being the main fruit crop in our country, is of particular practical and
scientific interest to us. However, tree nutrition issues have not been sufficiently studied. In
this regard, the aim of the research was to evaluate the effect of mineral fertilizers doses on
the productivity of winter apple tree varieties on leached chernozem of the Stavropol Upland.
The experiment was conducted in 2018-2019 in the conditions of the educational
experimental farm of Stavropol State Agrarian University. There were 3 replications of the
experiment. The area of the test plot was 80 m2. According to the experimental procedure,
there was a study of the effect of various doses of fertilizers: N60P60K60 (control), N120P120K120
and N180P180K180 on planted trees of Florina and Liberty winter apple varieties. The garden
was established in 2012 according to the 4x4 m plan. The obtained data showed that higher
doses of fertilizers contributed to a significant increase in the average weight of the fruits of
the considered apple varieties regarding the control dose of N60P60K60 by 15.2-23.9 g. On
average nutrient status, the largest average weight of fruits in the experiment was observed in
the Florina variety, which exceeded the second variety by 8.6 g. In addition to the increase of
average weight of fruits, higher doses of fertilizers provided a credible increase in yield
regarding the control nutrient status in the experiment by 3.5-3.9 t/ha. Alongside with this, it
was found that the average maximum yield among varieties in the experiment was observed
with N120P120K120 dose, which exceeded the performance of other doses by 0.4-3.9 t/ha. The
yield leader among the considered varieties was Liberty, which showed a significant
advantage over the Florina variety by 1.9 t/ha.