Nutrient Interactions in Cactus Pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) and Their

Effect on Biomass Production

R. Magallanes Quintanar R.D. Valdez Cepeda, F. Blanco Macías,
Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, R.R. Ruiz Garduño, M. Márquez Madrid
Unidad Académica de Medicina and F.J. Macías Rodríguez
Veterinaria y Zootecnia, Centro Regional Universitario Centro Norte
Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias Universidad Autónoma Chapingo
Pecuarias. Calera de V.R., Zacatecas Zacatecas, Zac
Mexico Mexico

B. Murillo Amador and R.D. Valdez Cepeda

J.L. García Hernández Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas
Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas Unidad Académica de Matemáticas
del Noroeste, S.C. La Paz, B.C.S. Carretera a la Bufa Esq. Paseo Solidaridad
Mexico Zacatecas, Zac.
Mexico

Keywords: macronutrients, P-Ca antagonism, N-P synergism, biomass production

Abstract
There are few reports on the interactive effects of nutrients in Opuntia ficus-
indica. The recognition of the importance of nutrient balance in crop production is an
indirect reflection of the contribution of nutrient interactions to yield. A field
experiment to identify nutrient interactions in cladodes of O. ficus-indica plants
cultivated with the objective of biomass production was carried out during three
years. N, P, K, Ca and Mg concentrations in one-year-old cladodes and biomass
production of three varieties served as dataset (n=108) to identify nutrients and
nutrient interactions affecting yield. Cactus pear mineral nutrition is not similar to
other fruit, vegetable and forage crops, because nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium
are not so important macronutrients as they are in other crops. Significant positive
correlations between yield and each of the nutrients K, Ca and Mg imply that yield
increase as their concentrations increase in one-year old cladodes. N and P were not
correlated with yield. N/P ratio had a significant positive effect on biomass
production. Moreover, it is noted that the P/Ca ratio significantly depressed yield in
O. ficus-indica.

INTRODUCTION
There is a growing worldwide interest in cultivating cactus pear for fruit and
biomass (mature cladodes and tender pads or “nopalitos”) production. However, there are
few reports indicating where knowledge gained about interactive nutrient effects has been
used to advance field cropping technology, and there can be little doubt on related aspects
of soil fertility and plant nutrition research that warrants closer investigation.
The recognition of the importance of nutrient balance in crop production is an
indirect reflection of the contribution of interactions to yield. The highest yields are
obtained where nutrients and other growth factors are in favorable state of balance. As
one moves away from this balance, nutrient antagonisms are reflected in reduced yields.
Despite the fact that interactions are important key to the future advances in farm
profitability, there are relatively few reports in the literature of their study under field
conditions. So, in the next lines, we briefly describe several references on the topic.
Karim et al. (1997) reported significant correlations between N, K and P and fruit
production and between cladode Mg and the soluble solids concentration in the fruits. A
correlation between cladode K and fruit yield was observed as K is the nutrient with the
highest concentration in the fruits. Unlike forage production from arid pastures where N
and water are the primary limiting factors, fruit production involves balances of

Proc. Vth Int’l. Congress on Cactus Pear and Cochineal

Eds. C. Mondragon Jacobo et al. 145
Acta Hort. 728, ISHS 2006
vegetative and reproductive growth which are often greatly influenced by P/N ratios and
K availability (Galizzi et al., 2004).
Gathaara et al. (1989) found a significant interaction between O. ficus-indica fruit
yield and N and P cladode concentrations, suggesting that it is not possible to
independently optimize these macronutrients, because N-P interactions are probably
economically the most important of all interactions involving these nutrients in most of
the crops around the world.
According to Galizzi et al. (2004), while it is important to examine as many
nutrients as possible, priorities must be assigned as to which nutrients should be applied
as fertilizers in field trials. Thus, for a relatively new crop such as Opuntia, it will be
necessary to examine correlations between soil nutrients, cladode nutrients and yield.
The response of Opuntia plants to fertilizer applications will be conditioned by
existing deficiencies or excessive quantities of nutrients prior to nutrient application
(Galizzi et al., 2004) through foliar or soil fertilizers. Thus, it is important not to just
examine treatment responses to fertilizer applications, but to develop regression equations
between the soil and plant variables to predict responses independent of soil backgrounds
(Galizzi et al., 2004). As we understand, it is also important to identify O. ficus-indica
nutrient requirements or nutrient norms (ideal tissue composition) under the basis of
nutrient balance, and main nutrient interactions affecting yield, in order to support
decisions on application of inputs into the crop systems either for fruit or biomass
production.
Magallanes-Quintanar et al. (2003) developed nutrient norms, so readers interested
on that topic must refer to their paper. In this report a contribution to identify nutrient
interactions in cladodes of O. ficus-indica cultivated with the objective of biomass
production is presented.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This study is based on data acquired from a field experiment to test three
fertilization treatments and three varieties of O. ficus-indica (‘Jalpa’, ‘Villanueva’ and
‘Copena V1’) with a planting density of 10,000 plants per hectare. The experiment was
established on April, 1999 in the experimental field of the Centro Regional Universitario
Centro Norte of the Universidad Autonoma Chapingo, located near Zacatecas city. We are
considering data from 36 plants (12 of each variety) for each of three years (2001, 2002
and 2003), thus our database is of 108 observations. Data corresponds to the
concentration of N, P, K, Ca and Mg in cladodes and cladodes fresh matter expressed as
kilograms per plant (kg Pl-1).
All data are associated to one-year cladodes harvested from plants having same
structure through pruning. The harvested cladodes were growing on nine cladodes at the
second level from the mother cladode. Nutrient concentrations were determined at the
Laboratory of the Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste, La Paz, Baja
California, México through its conventional approaches after acid digestion of the dry
tissue samples: N by vapor efflux, P by reduction with molibdo-vanadate, and K, Ca and
Mg by spectrophotometric techniques.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Ca and K are the most abundant elements in the cladodes, nearly four times more
abundant than cladode N (Table 1). Additionally, Mg is identified as a nutrient required
almost twice the quantity of N concentrated in the cladodes (Table 1). Therefore, it
appears reasonable that Ca, K and Mg could be limiting biomass production in O. ficus-
indica.
The ranges reported in Table 1 are in agreement with the Compositional Nutrient
Diagnosis preliminary norms reported by Magallanes-Quintanar et al. (2003), but our
averages for P, Ca and Mg are slightly higher than the corresponding means of the norms.
Nutrient means reported in Table 1 for P, K, Ca and Mg are greater than the
optimum nutrient concentrations for O. ficus-indica fruit production as reported by

146
Claaessens and Wessels (1997), probably due to production purposes, environment and
genotype.
Results in Table 1 indicate that O. ficus-indica mineral nutrition is not similar to
other fruit, vegetable or forage crop. Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are not so
important macronutrients for cactus as they are for other crops when nutrient
concentrations are taken into account. Additionally, especial care must be taken into
account when using cactus organs as animal or human food, because their dietary
constituents might be often low in edible sources and could be dangerous when having
high NO3 or other toxic compound levels. In this context, Méndez-Gallegos et al. (1999)
reported that Opuntia spp. plants easily take up and concentrate nitrate (NO3-) ions. This
may affect its nutritional quality.
The correlation matrix in Table 2 provides an overall view of significant
relationships. Yield per plant had significant positive correlations with cladode Mg, Ca
and K. Moreover, the significant positive interactions (synergisms) between N and P, N
and K, P and Ca, K and Mg and Ca and Mg are evidenced. The significant positive
correlations between yield and each of the nutrients K, Ca and Mg imply that yield
increase as their increasing concentrations in cladodes one-year old. While N and P were
not correlated with yield, it is obviously important to maintain adequate levels of phyto-
chemical compounds in the cladodes to ensure that photosynthesis or regulatory processes
are functionally optimally. To confirm this hypothesis, a correlation matrix between yield
and each of the evidenced interactions, and between elucidated interactions was carried
out.
Results in Table 3 suggest that the interaction between P and N (N/P ratio) had a
significant positive effect on biomass production (Fig. 1) confirming our hypothesis.
Moreover, it is noted that the P/Ca ratio significantly depress yield in O. ficus-indica
(Fig. 2). This result means the possibility of an excessive P concentration or an
insufficient Ca concentration, according to the model of the Diagnosis-Recommendation
Integrated System as pointed out by Sumner and Farina (1986). Commonly, the
interaction between P and Ca is negative in most of the crops, so it is not surprising to
have a reduced P availability in calcareous soils, however, it is not the case because it
appears to be an excessive P concentration. There is no physiological basis for this
antagonism in cladodes, so it deserves to be studied.
Other relationships between ratios are significant, as can be appreciated in Table 3.
An interesting result is that related to the negative relationship between N/P and P/Ca
ratios because it serve as a clear index to conclude that there is a positive plant response
to P x Ca interaction in terms of yield. Thus, an increase in P concentration might depress
yield which was previously identified in results presented in Table 2. However, this not
means that a increase in Ca concentration will increase biomass production, because from
the interpretation of the other negative relationships between nutrient ratios, a positive
plant response to synergisms between N and Mg, N and K, and perhaps P and Mg, and P
and K is expected. However, it is only expected a positive response to additions of N and
K because both nutrient concentrations for many observations are lower than those of the
Compositional Nutrient Diagnosis Norms (N = 0.97 and K = 4.47 g kg-1) of Magallanes-
Quintanar et al. (2003).
As a general result of this investigation, we highlight that N/P ratio could be very
important to obtain a nutrient balance in O. ficus-indica as it does in other fruit, forage
and vegetable crops. Additionally, it was elucidated that P/Ca ratio depress biomass
production in nopal plants.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to the Programa Universitario de Investigación en Fruticultura from the
Universidad Autónoma Chapingo for the partial financial assistance through the contract
230308 and to the Laboratory Service of the Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del
Noroeste, S.C.

147
Literature Cited
Claaessens, A.S. and Wessels, A.B. 1997. The fertilizer requirements of cactus pear
(Opuntia ficus-indica) under summer rainfall conditions in South Africa. Acta Hort.
438: 83-95.
Galizzi, F.A., Felker, P., González, C. and Gardiner, D. 2004. Correlations between soil
and cladode nutrient concentrations and fruit yield and quality in cactus pears,
Opuntia ficus-indica in a traditional farm setting in Argentina. J. Arid Environments
(in press).
Gathaara, G.N., Felker, P. and Land, M. 1989. Influence of nitrogen and phosphorus
fertilization on Opuntia engelmannii tissue N and P concentrations, biomass
production and fruit yields. J. Arid Environments 16: 337-346.
Karim, M.R., Felker, P. and Bingham, R.L. 1997. Correlations between cactus pear
(Opuntia spp.) cladode nutrient concentrations and fruit yield and quality. Ann. Arid
Zones 37: 159-171.
Magallanes-Quintanar, R., Valdez-Cepeda, R.D., Pérez-Veyna, O., Blanco-Macías, F.,
Murillo-Amador, B., Márquez-Madrid, M., Ruiz-Garduño, R.R. and García-
Hernández, J.L. 2003. Normas preliminares de diagnóstico nutricional en Opuntia
ficus-indica. In: Esparza-Frausto, G., M.A. Salas-Luévano, J. Mena-Covarrubias and
R.D. Valdez-Cepeda (Eds.). 2003. Memoria IX Congreso Nacional, VII Congreso
Internacional, Conocimiento y Aprovechamiento del Nopal. Zacatecas, Zac., México.
pp.293-297.
Méndez-Gallegos, S.J., Torres-Aquino, M. and Martínez-Hernández, J.J. 1999.
Recolección y evaluación agronómica de treinta variantes de nopal (Opuntia spp.) del
centro de México, en condiciones de hidroponía. In: Aguirre-Rivera, J.R. and
J.A. Reyes-Agüero (Eds.). Memoria del VII Congreso Nacional y VI Internacional
Sobre Conocimiento y Aprovechamiento del Nopal. Universidad Autónoma de San
Luis Potosí. San Luis Potosí, S.L.P., México. pp.30-31.
Sumner, M.E. and Farina, M.P.W. 1986. Phosphorus interactions with other nutrients and
lime in field cropping systems. Adv. Soil Sci. 5: 201-236.

Tables

Table 1. General descriptive statistics of nutrient concentrations and yield (n=108) for
three cactus pear varieties.

Mean Standard Deviation

-1
Yield (kg Pl ) 34.4157 12.0304
N (g kg-1) 0.9358 0.2048
P (g kg-1) 0.3639 5.991E-02
K (g kg-1) 4.4049 0.7841
Ca (g kg-1) 4.8451 1.1325
Mg (g kg-1) 1.6208 0.3437

148
Table 2. Pearson correlation coefficients and level of significance (p) for correlations
between yield and nutrient concentrations (n=108) in cladodes one-year old taking
into account three cactus pear varieties.

Nutrient Yield N P K Ca
N 0.156
p 0.106
P −0.131 0.258**
p 0.178 0.007
K 0.194* 0.011 0.011
p 0.045 0.913 0.914
Ca 0.255 ** 0.491** 0.248** -0.154
p 0.008 0.000 0.010 0.113
Mg 0.337 ** −0.119 −0.031 0.325** 0.243*
p 0.000 0.220 0.754 0.001 0.011 .
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level.
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level.

Table 3. Pearson correlation coefficients and level of significance (p) for correlations
between yield and nutrient interactions (n=108) in one-year old cladodes of three
cactus pear varieties.

Yield N/P N/Ca P/Ca K/Mg Ca/Mg

N/P 0.263 **
p 0.006
N/Ca −0.134 0.403 **
p 0.167 0.000
P/Ca −0.318 ** −0.504 ** 0.553 **
p 0.001 0.000 0.000
K/Mg −0.166 0.050 0.497 ** 0.374 **
p 0.086 0.605 0.000 0.000
Ca/Mg −0.023 0.264 ** −0.216 * −0.437 ** 0.147
p 0.817 0.006 0.025 0.000 0.129
Ca/K 0.119 0.232 * −0.476 ** −0.619 ** −0.566 ** 0.688 **
p 0.222 0.016 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000
* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level.
** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level.

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Figurese

y=21.365+4.981x
2
R =0.069
65

55

45
Yield (Kg ha )
-1

35

25

15

5
1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5
N/P

Fig. 1. Relationship between the N/P ratio and biomass yield of O. ficus-indica in
Zacatecas, México.

y=51.303-216.039x
2
R =0.101
65

55

45
Yield (Kg ha )
-1

35

25

15

5
0.03 0.05 0.07 0.09 0.11 0.13
P/Ca

Fig. 2. Relationship between the P/Ca ratio and biomass yield of O. ficus-indica in

150
Zacatecas, México.

151