Eight fertilizer experiments with sugarcane ratoon crops (CB41-76 variety) were carried out at several soils in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. Four of them were established on the Dusky Red Latosol, one in the clayey textured Red Yellow Latosol, one in a medium textured Dark Red Latosol and two in the Podzolized soils from calcareous sandstones sediments. Four month old leaves of position +3 were collected and analyzed for macronutrients. Considering the wide variation among localities, the following ranges of leaf nutrient contents were tentatively taken as adequate for sugarcane ratoon crops: N - 1.53 to 2.22%; P - 0.14 to 0.20%; K - 1.24 to 1.59%; Ca - 0.38 to 0.71%; Mg - 0.11 to 0.20% and S - 0.11 to 0.31%.
sugarcane; NPK fertilizer; leaf analysis