beachbum9605 wrote:comparing the nutritional benefits of organic vs. inorganic citrus fruits
These kinds of investigations are extremely difficult to do in a controlled scientific method to yield valid results. My personal opinion is that most attempts at these studies produce "junk science results".
Most citrus fruit trees are grafted. The root stock is usually a hardy nematode resistant variety whose fruit is undesirable and the graft is from a variety that has the desired fruit characteristics but does not have hardy root genetics. It takes years to produce a mature fruit producing tree so you would have to control all the variables for a long period of time.
By definition, all citrus trees are organic so what you have to tackle defining what "organic" and "inorganic" means in terms of the growing environment. If the soil is to acidic or to basic and needs to have its pH modified, what constitutes an organic vs inorganic soil pH treatment? If the soil is doesn't hold enough moisture (pure sand), does is adding a clay or plastic layer several feet down affect your "organic" vs "inorganic" definition? If the soil doesn't drain adequately, does adding sand (an inorganic) affect your "organic" vs "inorganic" definition?
If the trees aren't being grown in the same area, how can you guarantee the growing environments are identical?
If the trees are grown next to each other, how can you gaurantee that any pesticides or inorganic fertilizers used on the inorganically grown trees don't affect the ones you are attempting to grow organically? Does adding organic compost to the inorganically grown trees invalidate their "inorganically grown" definition? Taken together, these consitute an extremely difficult scientific experiment control problem.
Then you have the complicated measurement issues for nutritional and contaiminant trace. These aren't simple things to measure.
One example of the difficulty is looking at one fertilizer element:
Anhydrous amonia is one "inorganic" source and animal urine is one "organic" source of amonia. The plant's don't care as long as the chemical availability and spread rate is equivalent (plants can't smell). Which is better for the environment? No simple answers here either. Run off from either causes issues to streams.