Determining nitrogen status of young loblolly pine by leaf reflectance

Five-year-old lobloliy pine (Pinus taeda L.) seedlings were grown in sand culture in a completely randomized experimental design with eight nitrogen concentrations and three replications. Nitrogen concentration in the nutrient solution varied from 2 to 400 ppm. After a full growing season under treatment, percent reflectance of sunlight by new foliage was determined. Foliar samples were analyzed for nitrogen and chlorophyll. There was a strong positive correlation between nitrogen content and chlorophyll content (r = 0.895). The natural logarithm of percent reflectance was negatively correlated with both percent nitrogen content (r = -0.845) and chlorophyll content (r = -0.838). From these results, prediction equations for estimating nitrogen and chlorophyll content, as a function of reflectance, were formulated by regression analysis.