USE OF YIELD AND TOTAL SOLUBLE SOLIDS/TOTAL TITRATABLE ACIDITY RATIO IN ORANGE ON GROUP DEFINITION FOR STANDARD DRIS

ABSTRACT The nutritional quality of orange influences directly on its juice quality. Therefore, the DRIS (Diagnosis and Recommendation Integrated System) allows the verification of nutrients balance in plants as well as determine if its growth is associated or not to nutritionals restrictions. Thus, this research applied the total soluble solids/total titratable acidity to identify the standard group and to define the DRIS. The experiment was carried out in an orange orchard (1 ha) of the Monte Parnaso variety, in Southern Brazil. Twenty trees were geo-referenced, aiming to collect samples for foliar analysis and quantify fruits quality parameters. Therefore, it was possible to observe that total soluble solids/total titratable acidity presented the best ratio with the nutritional balance index, when compared to yield. Hence, it presents the best response when choosing standard group for DRIS calculations.