Development of preliminary multielement norms for the Diagnosis and Recommendation Integrated System (DRIS) in sweet potato, Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam., in Cañete Province, Peru

Cortez-Lázaro R.A.; Mendoza-Cortez J.W.; García-Bendezú S.J.; Casas-Díaz A.V.; Cortez-Lázaro A.A.; Coaquira-Incacari R. · Scientia Agropecuaria (2026) · DOI: 10.17268/sci.agropecu.2026.52

Resumen

Nutritional balance is a key factor influencing sweet potato productivity, particularly under intensive production systems where multiple nutrient interactions may affect crop performance. Reliable foliar diagnostic approaches are therefore needed to assess these interactions and identify nutritional imbalances associated with yield. This study aimed to develop Diagnosis and Recommendation Integrated System (DRIS) norms and characterize multielement nutritional balance in sweet potato using a yield-linked foliar database from Cañete, Lima, Perú. The database comprised 160 foliar samples collected from commercial fields and experimental plots, each associated with a corresponding yield record and analyzed for 13 elements (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Na, Cl, Cu, Zn, Mn, Fe, and B). Following complementary univariate and multivariate screening, 120 observations were retained and stratified by yield, with the high-yield population used as the reference population for norm development. Of the 156 direct and inverse elemental relationships evaluated, 72 were retained as DRIS norms after normality screening and subsequent selection based on the variance-ratio criterion. The mean DRIS profile of the low-yield population showed pronounced differences in the direction and magnitude of the elemental indices, with Zn showing the largest negative mean index (-69.76) and Ca the largest positive mean index (+55.49). Associations between individual DRIS indices and yield varied in both direction and magnitude. The resulting norms provide a multielement reference framework for characterizing nutritional balance under the production conditions represented by the Cañete dataset. However, the DRIS indices should be interpreted as indicators of relative nutritional imbalance rather than as experimentally validated nutrient requirements. Therefore, the diagnostic accuracy and transferability of these norms should be evaluated using independent datasets and nutrient-response experiments before they are applied to support nutrient-management recommendations.

Instituciones: Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina; Universidad Nacional de Cañete; Universidad Nacional José Faustino Sánchez Carrión