Comparison of Different Methods for Assessing Chlorophyll Content in Citrus

The content of chlorophyll-Chl present in green vegetables is strongly associated with the momentary state of the plant photosynthesis. Conventionally, determination of chlorophyll is by extraction with organic solvents and determining a spectrophotometer, and this method expensive, laborious and moreover a destructive method. Thus, the use of portable equipment has been used instead, as they allow studies without destruction of leaf tissue and obtaining instantaneous measurements. Thus, the aim of correlating the chlorophyll results obtained in the laboratory with Falker Chlorophyll Index (FCI) obtained by the ClorofiLog in different citrus rootstocks, as well asits relationship to soil moisture content variation. Positive simple correlations (linear Pearson correlation) were obtained for chl a, b and total, with the lowest correlation values observed for chl β, which ranged from 0.470-788 among the analyzed rootstocks. The coefficients of determination for the three variables chl α, β and total α+β showed a better fit by the polynomial regression model in all analyzed rootstocks; in general, the best results were for chl α, ranging from 0.7093-0.8551. The results indicate the usefulness of the ChloroflLog apparatus in the indirect determination of chlorophyll content in citrus.