Evaluation of Soil Fertility in Main Peach Production Areas of Shanxi Province Based on Principal Component Analysis

Taking 122 soil samples from six counties in the main peach producing area of Yuncheng as test materials, 11 nutrient indexes such as organic matter, available phosphorus and available potassium were determined.The nutrient status was diagnosed, and principal component analysis and systematic cluster analysis were used to evaluate and classify soil fertility, in order to provide reference for soil nutrient management and fertilization decision-making in nectarine growing areas.The results indicated that, 1) soil organic matter and total nitrogen were generally lacking in peach planting area, and available potassium, available copper, exchangeable calcium and exchangeable magnesium were abundant, while available phosphorus, iron, manganese and zinc were deficient in a few of the soil samples.2) Principal component analysis was used to extract 11 soil fertility indexes into 5 principal components, which could reflect 77.961% of all soil information in the study area.The first principal component was available manganese, available iron and available phosphorus, the second principal component was organic matter and total nitrogen.3) The soil fertility level was divided into three categories, namely high, middle and low levels, and the percentages of each level in total samples were 13.1%,39.3% and 47.5% respectively.The order of soil comprehensive fertility in different planting areas was Yongji＞Yanhu District＞Xinjiang County＞Xia County＞Wanrong County＞Linyi County.To sum up, soil fertility of nectarine orchard in Yuncheng was at the middle and low level, and soil available phosphorus, available manganese, available iron, organic matter and total nitrogen were the main factors affecting soil fertility.In management, it was necessary to increase the application of organic fertilizer, nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer and trace element fertilizer to fertilize the soil.