Plants of Barbados cherry (Malpighia emarginata) produces all over the year, and its fruits are rich in vitamins and minerals. In order to obtain good production and high fruit quality it is necessary to know the nutritional need and the suitable season for plant fertilization. Thus, it was carried out an experiment at the EMBRAPA-National Center for Research of Tropical Agro-industry, from December 1999 to October 2000, aiming to study the seasonal changes nutrient (N, P, K, Ca, Mg and S) levels, and the suitable period for leaves mineral diagnosis, in six genotypes P 52, P 66, P 78, P 91, P 93 and P 97) and six distinct sampling times. All the 36 treatments (six genotypes evaluated in six harvest times) were conducted in a Randomized Completed Block (RCB) design with, and analyzed statistically as a split plot, with four replications composed by one plant each. It was observed low variations on macronutrient levels in the leaves among genotypes. December is the most suitable period for leaves sampling aiming to plant nutritional diagnosis of Malpighia emarginata, at Ceará Estate, Brazil.
Malpighia emarginata; mineral nutrition; leaves sampling,time
