Influence of leaflet age on leaf nutrient content for developing leaf sampling technique in litchi cv. Shahi and China

An experiment was conducted to standardize leaflet age to be sampled for two commercial litchi cultivars, viz. Shahi and China under the acidic silt loam soil of Jharkhand. One, four, seven and ten month old leaflets were taken as treatments and each treatment was replicated five times. The experiment was laid down under randomized block design and each plot comprising single tree. The leaf N, P and K contents decreased with increase in leaflets age in both the commercial cultivars of litchi (cv. Shahi and China). However, leaf S content also decreased with increased in leaflets age but stabilized in four months old leaflets. In contrary to primary nutrient, the secondary leaf nutrients viz., Ca and Mg contents increased with increase in leaf age and stabilized after four month old leaflets. Leaf Fe and Mn contents increased with increase in leaf age while leaf Zn and Cu contents showed a declining trend with increase in leaf age. Leaf N, P, K, S, Zn and Cu showed negligible variations in leaflets after seven months; however, Mg content did not show any significant difference after four months in both cultivars, whereas Ca, Fe and Mn were completely stabilized in old leaflets after four months. Since, it is not practical to collect leaves separately for different nutrients, hence it is suggested that leaves should be sampled from seven months old leaflets owing to the fact that the macro- and micro-nutrient contents in leaflets of both the cultivars of litchi showed least variations.