Ionome composition and interaction influence olive yield on calcareous soils: the case of Olea europaea L. cv. 'Shengeh'

Soil pH greatly affects plant biogeochemical safety, ionome, and nutritional balance. The local compositional nutrient diagnosis standards as centered log ratio (CNDclr*) means and standard deviations of the ionome of high-yield and nutritionally balanced specimens of local 'Shengeh' olive trees (Olea europaea L. cv. 'Shengeh') were determined. Critical nutrient indices (I2X) and critical yield of the olive orchards were determined based on the Cate-Nelson method. The principal component analysis (PCA) was used to identify the most critical nutritional indices that influence the performance of 'Shengeh' olive trees on calcareous soils. The Cate-Nelson model shows that for yields above 52.98 kg tree-1, the value of the CNDr2 index must be below 15.22. According to PCA and coefficients of variables, among the leaf nutrient indices, increasing P, Cu, Zn, and Fe and decreasing N, K, Ca, and B within the range of nutritional balance had significant correlations with the performance of low-yield subpopulation 'Shengeh' olive orchards on calcareous soils.