Standardization of leaf sampling technique in Litchi

An experiment was conducted to standardize leaf position to be sampled for two cultivars namely ‘Shahi’ and ‘China’ of litchi under the acidic silt loam soil of Jharkhand. Leaflets were collected from four positions from the terminal apex downward i.e., first, third, fifth and seventh pair were analysed for nutrient content. The variations in the leaf nutrient concentrations of macronutrients (N, P, K, S, Ca and Mg) showed that N, P, K content gradually decreased while Ca and Mg content increased from the first to third leaf position of both the cultivars. Leaf S content did not show any consistent trend with respect to leaf positions. In case of micro-nutrients (Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu) the leaf Fe and Mn content increased gradually from first leaf position to fifth leaf position while Zn and Cu content of leaf decreased from first leaf position to third and remained almost stable thereafter. Hence, leaflets from 3^rd to 5^th position starting from uppermost fully opened leaf could be considered as the best leaf for sampling study. The 5^th pair of leaflets from the growing tips showed lower levels of N, P, K, Zn, Cu but higher levels of Ca, Mg, Mn and Fe than the first pair while leaf S was not influenced significantly for both the cultivars.