Reuse of Pruning Waste from Subtropical Fruit Trees and Urban Gardens as a Source of Nutrients: Changes in the Physical, Chemical, and Biological Properties of the Soil Reyes Martín, Marino Pedro Ortiz Bernad, Irene Lallena Rojo, Antonio Miguel Fernández Ondoño, Emilia Pruning waste Litter bags Decomposition rates Carbon release Nitrogen release Avocado Cherimoya Mango Garden Authors appreciate the financial support of this work by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Project CGL-2013-46665-R) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). A field experiment was conducted on the Andalusian coast (Granada, Southern Spain) to study the time course of nutrient release into the soil after the addition of bagged pruning waste from subtropical orchard trees (avocado, cherimoya, and mango) and urban garden waste over three two-year periods. N, P, and K concentrations were greater in the garden waste, whilst avocado and cherimoya pruning waste registered the highest values for Mg. In general, micronutrient contents were low in all waste, especially Cu. Macronutrient release followed a three-phase dynamic: fast initial release, intermediate stabilization, and final increase. Garden waste showed a similar time course in all three trees and released greater concentrations of K and P. The annual decomposition rate factor k was negative for N and Ca in the avocado tree, indicating strong biological activity in this plot. Avocado, cherimoya, and garden waste showed a good microbial degradation, improving soil quality by increasing carbon and nitrogen contents as well as soil microbial activity. As for the mango tree, its special microclimatic conditions appeared to favor waste photodegradation, thus eliminating nutrients that were not incorporated into the soil. Soil enzymatic activities increased in the avocado and cherimoya trees with the addition of all waste. In the mango tree, only an increase in urease was detected after the addition of garden waste. Our results suggest that the time course of organic waste in different subtropical trees grown on similar soils is significantly conditioned by the microclimatic characteristics. 2022-02-02T09:15:00Z 2022-02-02T09:15:00Z 2021-12-25 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Reyes-Martín, M.P... [et al.]. Reuse of Pruning Waste from Subtropical Fruit Trees and Urban Gardens as a Source of Nutrients: Changes in the Physical, Chemical, and Biological Properties of the Soil. Appl. Sci. 2022, 12, 193. [https://doi.org/10.3390/app12010193] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/72605 10.3390/app12010193 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución 3.0 España MDPI