estimation of the status of supply of tomatoes grown in the lublin region in certain macro- and microelements

In the years 2009–2011, in the Lublin Region, an environmental study was conducted with the objective of estimation of the supply of tomato plants with macro- and microelements. The estimation was conducted after performing chemical analyses of leaves of those plants.The leaves were collected from plantations situated in seven localities. Samples of leaves were collected during the harvest of the fruits. The chemical analyses were performed at the accredited laboratory of the Regional Chemical-Agricultural Station in Lublin. Assays performed on the material analysed included the following: dry mater, content of total nitrogen according to the Kjeldahl method, content of phosphorus – with the vanadium-molybdenum method, potassium and calcium – with the method of flame photometry, magnesium, copper, zinc, manganese and iron with the ASA method, and boron – with the curcumin method. The mean contents and standard deviation of the content of macro- (N, P, K, Ca and Mg) and microelements (Cu, Zn, Fe, Mn, B) in tomato leaves were calculated, and correlations occurring among those elements were determined. In most cases the level of supply in macroelements of tomatoes grown in plantations in the Lublin Region indicated exceeding of the optimum range. Only the content of nitrogen in the leaves was within the optimum range, while the levels of phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium exceeded that range. The supply of tomatoes grown in the Lublin Region with microelements in most cases exceeded the optimum range, and in one case it was at the deficit level. The optimum range was exceeded for the leaf content of copper, zinc, manganese and iron; the deficit content was related to boron. It was found that among the assayed macro- (N, P, K, Ca, Mg) and microelements (Cu, Zn, Mn, Fe and B) only in a few cases (3) there appeared significant positive correlations between the elements assayed. It should be noted, however, that only in a single case the coefficient of determination was higher than 50% (77.1%).