Soil Available Nutrients and Fruit Qualities of Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) in Zaozhuang City

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) is a fruit traditionally grown in Shandong Province of China for thousands of years. Zaozhuang has a suitable ecology for pomegranate growing and it is famous for its pomegranate. Soil fertility status is the basis for formulating a suitable fertilization strategy and it has a very important impact on fruit quality. The aims of this research were to determine the status of soil fertility and the fruit qualities of pomegranate in Zaozhuang city. Samples of soil and fruit were collected from pomegranate orchards and they were tested and classified in this research. The results show that the soil pH, the content of soil organic matter, available N, available P and available K were 7.17, 10.93 g/kg, 41.62 mg/kg, 36.75 mg/kg and 169.0 mg/kg, respectively. We thought that the content of soil organic matter and soil available N were generally lower. But the content of soil available K was medium or abundant. According to the content of soil available nutrients, we should highly emphasize the fertilization of N and organic fertilizer, and control the supply of P and K. The fruit organic acid content varied from 0.31 to 4.49%, and the coefficient of variation was 114.67%, followed by the pomegranate fruit weight. The fruit weight coefficient of variation was 28.67%, and soluble solids content coefficient of variation was 5.98%. The more stable fruits economic trait was the soluble solids. 'Damaya', 'Daqingpitian', etc. might be determined as fresh cultivars. 'Daqingpisuan' tasted sweet and sour, and it might be appropriate to increase the cultivation area. 'Hongpisuan', 'Qingpisuan' and the other pomegranate cultivars could be determined as pomegranate juice beverage and resistant breeding materials.