6. Soils
The main soil in Brazil is called by the FAO the Ferralsol.
Ferralsol is the extremely weathered red or yellow soil that can be found in
the humid tropics. It consists mostly out of the dominant clay mineral kaolinite
and is also high in iron and aluminium oxides. The banana plant will grow and
fruit under very poor conditions but will not flourish and be economically
productive without deep, well-drained soil loam, rocky sand, marl, red
laterite, volcanic ash, sandy clay, even heavy clay but not fine sand which
holds water.
Besides the polluted soils and groundwater in Brazil due
to excessive pesticide use is the fact that they extract a lot of nutrients and
don’t replace them a big cause of the soil erosion in Brazil. The cause of this
is the lack of knowledge with the farmers. They don’t now the plant biology so
they don’t know what their plant needs want it extracts from the soil and what
that does to their soil.
The graph below shows what the micronutrient up take is
of the banana. So to maintain These levels an fertilizer that is high in
potassium is required.
Banana plant nutrient uptake
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten