FOLIAR DIAGNOSIS IN CITRUS .2. EFFECT OF CULTIVARS AND OF LEAF COLLECTING QUADRANTS ON MICRONUTRIENT AMOUNTS

The effect of the position of the leaves on the tree, collected for ch emical analysis, in relation to the quadrants in four citrus cultivars was studied. The experiment was conducted in commercial orchards at V itoria Farm in Alfenas, MG, Brazil, where the leaves were collected fr om 'Pera Rio', 'Valencia', and 'Baianinha' orange trees and from 'Murc ote' mandarin trees, grafted on 'Rangpur' lime rootstock. An experimen tal design consisting of randomized blocks with four replications was used. The leaf collecting quadrants made up the samples, forming the f ollowing treatments: North, South, East, West, North and South, East a nd West and leaves collected from four quadrants (test plot). With rel ation to leaf sampling quadrants, only the 'Murcote' mandarin tree pre sented variations in the B and Zn content, while the 'Pera Rio, 'Valen cia' and 'Baianinha' cultivars showed no differences in foliar content of the micronutrients analysed (B, Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn), as a result of the foliar sampling quadrants. Comparing the micronutrient content am ong the cultivars, 'Baianinha' was generally the one that showed the h ighest amounts, followed by 'Valencia', 'Pera Rio' and 'Murcote'.