SEASONAL VARIATIONS IN MINERAL NUTRIENTS IN LEAVES AND SHOOTS OF SOME PERSIMMON CULTIVARS GROWN IN TURKEY

Persimmon cultivars such as ‘Vainiglia’, ‘Kaki Tipo’, ‘O-Gosho’, ‘Fuyu’, ‘Jirou’, ‘Hana Fuyu’, ‘Hachiya’ and ‘Amankaki’, and genotypes such as ‘Eylül’ and ‘Harbiye’ were studied during a two-year period, from 2009 to 2010 in Dörtyol-Hatay (Turkey). N, P, K, Na, Fe, Zn and Cu concentrations in the leaves of different persimmon genotypes decreased during vegetation cycle, whereas Ca, Mg and Mn contents increased during the same period. N, P, Mg, Zn and Mn contents in the shoots showed slightly different trend with one another. These nutrients reduced rapidly after budbreak, and the decreases continued during the growing season until mid- and late summer, then accumulations of them slowly began after fruit maturity. In the entire growing season, mean macro-nutrients such as N, P and K contents changed from 2.47 (‘Jirou’) to 2.84% (‘Harbiye’), from 0.10 (‘Eylül’) to 0.15% (‘O-Gosho’) and from 0.89 (‘Harbiye’) to 1.61% (‘O-Gosho’), respectively, and mean micro-nutrients such as Fe, Zn and Mn contents ranged between 53.19 (‘Kaki Tipo’) and 66.31 mg/L (‘Fuyu’), between 7.34 (‘Amankaki’) and 11.90 mg/L (‘Fuyu’) and between 199.91 mg/L (‘Kaki Tipo’) and 306.90 mg/L (‘Harbiye’), respectively. While N, K, Mg, Ca, Fe and Mn contents were more in the leaves than in the shoots, P, Na, Zn and Cu contents in the leaves were similar with those in the shoots.