Nutrient Removal for Almond

I have received a few inquiries about the nutrients removed for almond. Based on Dr. Patrick Brown's group's work (Sebastian Saa Silva and others), the amount of NPK removed with every 1000 kernel pounds of almond is:Nitrogen - 65 lbs, Phosphorous - 8 lbs, and Potassium - 76 lbs.This includes the nutrients removed will all of the materials exported out of the orchard in a typical pick-up operation - hulls, sticks, leaves, shells, and kernels.Keep in mind that more than the above amounts may be needed to compensate for the inefficiencies of application and uptake (i.e. nitrogen uptake efficiency is somewhere between 75-85%, condition dependent -- so to have 65 lbs of uptake, 76-85 lbs of N must be applied).As noted in the comments below, potassium and phosphorous must be converted to oxides. This can be done as follows:Almond removal8lbs of P = 18.4lb of P2O576 lbs of K = 91.2 lbs of K2O

For Phosphorus

o Lbs. P x 2.3 = lbs. P2O5

o Lbs. P2O5 x 0.43 = lbs. P

 

For Potash

o Lbs. K x 1.2 = lbs. K20

o Lbs. K20 x 0.83 = lbs. K