Effect of Supplemental Nitrogen and Potassium Fertilization On Yield and Fruit Quality of ‘Sensation' and ‘Tommy Atkins' Mango (Mangifera indica L.).

Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is one of the most important fruit crops in the tropical regions of the world.  In Saudi Arabia, mango is the number one ranked fruit crop in the Jazan area and production has been expanding rapidly there.  ‘Sensation’ and ‘Tommy Atkins’ are the most popular mango cultivars and occupy the largest orchard areas in the newly reclaimed sandy soil of Jazan.  Most of these new orchards suffer from the scarcity of irrigation water, salinity, and poor soil fertility.

A field study was carried out during 2008 and 2009 seasons to evaluate the effect of urea, potassium sulfate, and SABIC compound (11-29-19) fertilization on yield and fruit quality of 6-7 year old ‘Sensation’ and ‘Tommy Atkins’ mango trees grown on sandy soil in a commercial grove at a spacing of 7 x 7 m.  The experiment was a randomized complete block design with 4 treatments, 4 replications, and 3 trees per plot.  All trees were managed according to typical commercial practices for pest management and were irrigated as needed using a bubbler irrigation system.

Supplemental application of 1435 or 1978 g of urea and additional applications of 1000 or 1500 g of potassium sulfate to 2000 g of SABIC compound (11-29-19) per tree per year produced the highest fruit yield and increased total soluble solids for both cultivars.  With increasing fertilization, average fruit weight and fruit size was reduced for ‘Tommy Atkins’, but increased for ‘Sensation’.