Table 2. Chemical characteristics of the soil where diseased (common apear rot\crown disease), and healthy plants were growing, Costa Rica.

Sep-89 Dec-89 Aug-90
Diseased* Healthty Diseased Healthy Diseased
I** C I C I C C C
pH (w 5 5 5.4 5.1 5.6 5.4 6.9 6.4
P (mgl) 12 13 14 6 5 6 10 14
Ca cmol\l) 34.8 38.1 34.4 33.5 40.1 34.1 19.3 17.9
Mg (cmol\l) 5.1 5.5 6.3 5.8 6.6 5.3 2.4 2.5
K (cmol\l) 0.25 0.25 0.42 0.36 0.36 0.23 0.44 0.48
Acidy exchangeable (cmol\l) 2.9 2.9 1.9 2.1 0.6 0.5 0.1 0.1
Fe (mg\l) 132 131 139 130 84 94 55 65
Cu (mg\l) 64 91 143 182 104 89 27 66
Zn (mg\l) 6 11 12 11 10 8 1 3
Mn (mg\l) 208 267 228 227 356 283 24 47
Sum of cations (cmol\l) 40.2 43.8 41.1 39.7 47.1 39.6 22.1 20.9
CICE (cmol\l) 43 46.8 43 41.8 47.7 40.1 22.2 21
Acid saturation (%) 6.74 6.2 4.42 5.03 1.26 1.25 0.45 0.48
Ca/Mg 6.8 6.9 5.5 5.8 6.1 6.4 8.2 7.2
Ca/K 139.2 152.4 81.9 93.1 111.4 148.3 43.8 37.3
Mg/K 20.4 22 15 16.1 18.3 23 5.3 5.2
(Ca+Mg)/K 159.6 174.4 96.9 109.2 129.7 171.3 49.2 42.5

*. Diseased= sample taken within the palm circle; Healthy= sample from the circle of healthy palms).

**. I= sample from the interrow; C= sample from the palm circle).