Determining Nutrient Diagnostic Norms for Greenhouse Roses

Abstract

Greenhouse-grown cut roses are an economically important and intensive horticultural cropping system receiving large water, fertilizer, agrochemicals, and labor inputs. This study was conducted to establish and validate norms for the nutrient diagnosis techniques Diagnosis and Recommendation Integrated System (DRIS) and Compositional Nutrient Diagnosis (CND) for cut roses (Rosa spp. L.) growing on soil beds within greenhouses in the Bogotá Plateau, Colombia. Information used in this study was obtained from a database of plant tissue and soil analyses, including 1914 foliar analyses of different rose cultivars grafted on the rootstock R. × ‘Natal Briar’. Theoretical validation proved that the generated norms are suitable for crop nutrient status diagnosis, allowing for the correlation of nutrient balance indices with crop flower productivities across a range of cultivars and plant ages. Analysis of the results provided by both DRIS and CND procedures indicated that element relations associated with nitrogen, phosphorous, magnesium, manganese, and boron had a higher influence on the nutritional balance and productivity of roses growing under the conditions of the studied region. In addition, it was preliminarily determined that the use of these diagnostic norms could be extended to rose crops growing under other, and different, rootstocks, production and environmental conditions, and management.