Effects of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium formula fertilization on the yield and berry quality of blueberry

• Published in: PloS one 2023-03, Vol.18 (3), p.e0283137-e0283137
• Main Authors: Zhang, Xinyu, Li, Shuangshuang, An, Xiaoli, Song, Zejun, Zhu, Yunzheng, Tan, Yi, Guo, Xiaolan, Wang, Delu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acids; Agriculture - methods; Ammonium; Ammonium sulfate; Analysis; Anthocyanin; Anthocyanins; Berries; Biology and Life Sciences; Blueberries; Blueberry Plants - metabolism; Crop yield; Design of experiments; Diseases and pests; Environmental aspects; Experimental design; Factor analysis; Fertilization; Fertilizers; Fertilizers - analysis; Flavonoids; Food quality; Fruit - metabolism; Fruits; Genetic aspects; Growth; Health aspects; Nitrogen; Nitrogen - metabolism; Phenols; Phosphatic fertilizers; Phosphorus; Phosphorus - metabolism; Phosphorus pentoxide; Physical Sciences; Potassium; Potassium - metabolism; Potassium sulfate; Principal components analysis; Soil; Sulfates; Vaccinium; Variance analysis
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0283137

Through the application ratio of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) in the field, L9 (33) orthogonal experimental design was used to study the effects of different N, P and K ratios on the yield and quality of blueberry fruit, aiming to optimize the amount of supplied fertilizers. The results showed that N, P and K fertilizer had different effects on fruit yield and quality, among which K fertilizer was the most important factor. Fertilization could significantly improve the yield and fruit quality of blueberry, and the average yield of fertilization treatment was 37.78% higher than that of the control group (CK). Even the treatment with the worst results F6 (N2P3K1), its single fruit weight, anthocyanins, total phenols, soluble solids and soluble protein content were 1.09, 1.32, 1.23, 1.08 and 1.21 times higher than the control (CK), respectively. Based on the comprehensive evaluation of principal component analysis and multi factor analysis of variance, the best fertilization combination for high-yield and good-quality blueberries was N1P2K2 (F2), that is, the best fertilization effect was that including N 100 g/plant, P2O5 25 g/plant, K2O 25 g/plant, applied in the form of ammonium sulfate (472 g/plant), superphosphate (41 g/plant) and potassium sulfate (40 g/plant), respectively.