International Meeting on Soil Fertility Land Management and Agroclimatology. Turkey, 2008. p:403-411 403 Effect of Nitrogen Rates on Yield and Fruit Quality of Fig (Ficus carica L. cv. Sarılop) Birgul Ertan 1 Ferit Cobanoglu 1 Berrin Sahin 1 Aytekin Belge 1 Ramazan Konak 1 Mahmut Tepecik 2 1 Fig Research Institute, Erbeyli, Incirliova, 09600 Aydin, Turkey Corresponding author: birgulertan @hotmail.com Tel:+90-256-5811123/26 Fax: +90-256-5811124 2 Ege University, Agricultural Faculty, Department of Soil Science, 35100 Bornova-Izmir, Turkey ABSTRACT In this study, it is aimed to determine the effects of different nitrogen rates on yield and quality parameters, including aflatoxins in fig fruits (Ficus carica L. cv. Sarılop). For this study, one control and five different nitrogen levels were applied in a slope fig orchard in Egrek village in Incirliova, Aydin for two years. Yield, shoot length and some fruit quality parameters (cull ratio, ostiole width, color, brix and acidity) and aflatoxins were determined. An overall evaluation of fruit yield and quality notifies that up to 500g N/ tree can be recommended in the fertilization of fig according to findings of two years. However, it would be able to give absolute results from final report of that project in one year later. Key words: Fig, quality, nitrogen, fertilization, and aflatoxin. INTRODUCTION It is estimated that Turkey produces 300.000 tons of fig fruit per year and The Aegean Region comprises 75% of the production. On the other hand, Turkey comprises about 55% of the total production of the world (Bülbül et al., 1998). Fertilization is very noteworthy practices for high yield and quality in fig (rget et al., 2008).Very few research works have been carried out in world-wide on fig tree fertilization. Kabasakal (1983) studied seasonal changes of nutrient elements in fig fruits. Aksoy et al. (1987a) surveyed mineral nutrition of fig plantation of Germencik. Aksoy et al. (1987b), Anaç et al. (1987) and Aksoy et al. (1992) investigated the relations between mineral nutrition and fresh-dried fig fruits in Aegean region. Özer and Derici (1998) reported that there was a positive interaction between Ca and aflatoxin B 1 and a negative interaction between Cu and total aflatoxin, aflatoxin B 1 . In addition, the samples showing fluorescence under UV light contained significantly higher levels of K, Na, and Ca. However, the samples which did not show fluorescence contained much more Cu than the other samples. rget et al. (2008) stated that basic NPK fertilization with additional 280g Ca /tree increased overall quality by reducing the number of sunscalded fruits and fruits with ostiole-end cracks. The results showed that the fertilizers applied significantly reduced the cull ratio and could alleviate the negative impact of drought, as well.