
Binary logistic models were
developed to spatially predict the probability of NK fertilizer application
classes in a date palm-arid region (20 000 ha) using soil salinity (ECe,
dS/m), profile residual nitrate (NO3-Np, mg/kg), the
soil-test values for soil surface Fes (mg/kg) and Mns
(mg/kg), and the total applied quantity of irrigation water (Qiw, m3/tree).
The NK fertilizer application classes were assigned based on a total of 67
field trials implemented at sites of wide range of soil fertility during two growing
seasons. The experiments had the same design with 16 factorial combinations of
N and K while P was kept constant with a total number of 200 date palms per
field trial. The combination of n independent site-variables taken r at a time method
was developed to estimate the target number of total regression degrees of
freedom. Only six of the 24 site-variables (X) were found to be statistically
significant in influencing the probability of NK responses. The probability of response
(Y=1 means response and Y=0 no response) to the levels of N-application and
major-N-application were expressed by the logistic models: Logit (Y=1|N= 0.5, 1,
2, or 4 |X) = 2.950 – 0.017 Qiw + 1.066 ECes
+ 0.5