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Mango is one of the six important fruits crops besides banana, watermelon, apple, orange, and grapes in the world. Of late, insidious fruit rot (IFR) has been of increasing concern among mango growers in Malaysia as this disease does not exhibit visible symptoms but has the potential to reduce the quality of the fruit. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to evaluate and correlate soil fertility status between mango orchards with and without the IFR incidence by comparing content of selected soil nutrients. The soil samples were collected from orchards planted with Harumanis, a mango variety, with and without IFR incidence. The samples were taken at a depth of 0–30 cm, crushed and then sieved using a 2-mm mesh size prior to laboratory analysis. The analyses followed standard practice. The results showed a significant difference between EC, total C, total N, C/N ratio, and exchangeable bases (Ca, Mg, K and Na) between the soil samples from Harumanis orchards with and without IFR incidences. Although soil nutrient content was higher than the optimal range for Harumanis cultivation in both sites, synergistic and antagonistic effects were discovered mostly in soil samples from Harumanis orchard with IFR incidence. Studies show that application of Ca and K fertilizers can suppress IFR incidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigated the spatial variation of the physico-chemical characteristics of lateritic soil profiles (up to 60 cm in depth) in a sloping mango orchard (1 ha; slope gradient = 6 %) in North Peninsular Malaysia. The study revealed that horizontal variation for the exchangeable Al and Mg, and the particle size fractions in the topmost soil layer (0-15 cm) within the orchard was higher than their vertical variation within the soil profile, and that, in contrast, the opposite trend was found for the total N, cation exchange capacity, and base saturation. Furthermore, preferential accumulation of soil organic matter and nutrients such as total N and available P were found at the lower (LS) and/or middle (MS) slope positions than the upper (US) one, while the lower clay content with the higher clay activity index was observed at LS compared to MS and US. These results suggest that these variations occur by the scattered accumulation of fertilizer-derived nutrients (i.e. N, P, K, and Mg) in the surface soil layers and the translocation of the surface litter, soil and nutrients towards the downslope in addition to enhanced eluviation process with the residual of clays at the downslope in the sloping orchard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]