## 2 Materials and Methods  
### Study Sites and Experimental Design  
The three study sites were located in the experimental farm \"El Zahori\" (36\({}^{\circ}\)45\({}^{\prime}\)54.2\({}^{\prime\prime}\) N, 3\({}^{\circ}\)39\({}^{\prime}\)55.0\({}^{\prime\prime}\) W, 235 m a.s.l. ), in the municipality of Almunecar (Granada, S Spain) (Figure 1). The experiments were conducted using bagged pruning waste under the canopies of avocado trees (_Persea americana_ Mill. ), cherimoya trees (_Annuona chernola_ Mill. ), and mango trees (_Mangifera indica_), grown on soils classified by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) as Eutric Escalic Anthrosols [25], formed on schists. The experimental farm is located in an area with slopes that vary between 30 and 60%. The crops are located on flat terraces. The climate is subtropical Mediterranean, with an average temperature during the study period of 21.3 \({}^{\circ}\)C (maximum average monthly temperature of 30.5 \({}^{\circ}\)C and minimum of 6.9 \({}^{\circ}\)C), average relative humidity of 77%, accumulated rainfall of 5323.6 mm, and accumulated evapotranspiration (ETo) of 7322.2 mm. The avocado, cherimoya, and mango crops have a planting frame of 8, 6, and 3 m and an age of 29, 21, and 14 years, respectively. Data related to the soil properties analyzed at the beginning of the experiment appear in Table 1.  
Fertilizer was applied with fertigation including N, P, K, Fe (chelated), Zn, and B. Trees were pruned every year and different amounts of pruning debris were collected depending on the crop, reaching approximate values of 12 kg/tree in avocado, 6 kg/tree in cherimoya, and 3 kg/tree in mango. To study the decomposition of the pruning waste, we applied the standard technique of bagging, as in many other studies for the decomposition of dead leaves [26; 27]. Under each of these trees (avocado, cherimoya, and mango), bags of PVC net measuring 26 \(\times\) 26 cm with a 2 mm mesh size were filled with 100 g of fresh shredded pruning waste and then sealed (sewn with nylon thread) and placed 50 cm from the tree trunk after the layer of dead leaves naturally present on the soil surface was removed. It was planned to take three samples (bags) of each type in five sampling periods. Thus, under each tree, 15 bags with \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & **pH** & **EC (d5 m\({}^{-1}\))** & **BD (kg dm\({}^{-3}\))** & **OC (\%)** & **N (\%)** & **C/N** & **Clay (\%)** & **Silt (\%)** & **Sand (\%)** \\ \hline Avocado & 7.0 (0.1) a & 0.5 (0.1) a & 1.1 (0.0) a & 1.9 (0.6) a & 0.1 (0.0) a & 12.4 (1.7) a & 9.8 (0.3) a & 39.8 (0.7) a & 50.4 (1.0) ab \\ Cherimoya & 8.2 (0.4) b & 0.4 (0.2) a & 1.2 (0.0) a & 0.8 (0.2) b & 0.1 (0.0) ab & 12.8 (1.0) a & 7.1 (0.1) b & 38.6 (1.5) ab & 54.3 (1.4) b \\ Mango & 8.5 (0.2) b & 0.1 (0.0) a & 1.3 (0.0) a & 1.0 (0.3) b & 0.1 (0.0) b & 13.7 (1.1) a & 9.5 (1.2) a & 41.1 (0.6) b & 49.3 (1.6) a \\ \hline \end{tabular} Note: EC—electrical conductivity; BD—bulk density; OC—organic carbon. Data not sharing a common letter are statistically different between trees (Tukey’s test, \(p<0.05\)); standard deviation in brackets.  
\end{table} 
Table 1: Mean values of the soil properties analyzed at the beginning of the experiment below the avocado, cherimoya, and mango trees. Figure 1: Location of the sampling area, aerial image of the farm, placement of the different bagged pruning waste under the avocado, chirimoya, and mango trees, and detail of the bagged pruning waste. pruning waste of the same species, plus another 15 bags with pruning waste from gardens, were placed, for a total of 30 bags under each of the 3 trees, as shown in Figure 1.  
At the beginning of the experiment, three representative samples of fresh pruning waste of each kind were taken, to determine initial values for reference. After 3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months, samples of each kind of tree were collected and taken to the Department of Soil Sciences and Agricultural Chemistry of the University of Granada for analysis.