Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of nutrient uptake, accumulation, distribution and use, and its relationship with growth variables, chlorophyll content, and root and shoot dry-weight partitioning in the ‘Okinawa Roxo’ peach rootstock, submitted to different nutrient solutions and substrates. The experimental design was completely randomised, with four treatments and five replications. The treatments were T1: Ns1 = Souza et al. nutrient solution (2011), applied to a sand substrate; T2: Ns2 = Hoagland and Arnon (1950), applied to a sand substrate; T3: Commercial Substrate + H2O; and T4: Control, Sand + H2O. Ninety days after transplanting (DAT), morphological, physiological and nutritional parameters were determined in the ‘Okinawa Roxo’ rootstock, together with the correlation between nitrogen concentration and nitrogen balance index, and the chlorophyll content and index. The greatest zinc content was detected in the shoots of the ‘Okinawa Roxo’ plants, at more than 80% of the accumulated total. Treatments T1 and T2 (nutrient solutions Ns1 and Ns2 respectively) made it possible to obtain ‘Okinawa Roxo’ plants with the best morphophysiological characteristics, being ready for grafting three months after transplanting in a greenhouse. The use of the Ns1 nutrient solution resulted in greater efficiency in the uptake and use of the nutrients nitrogen (N), potassium (K) and iron (Fe). The N and Total Chlorophyll concentrations in the leaves of the red-leaved peach tree can be estimated indirectly with a chlorophyll meter, and are an accurate indication of the nutritional status of the plant in relation to nitrogen content.
Highlights
Brazil is one of the largest fruit producers in the world, with soil and climate characteristics suitable for the development of fruit farming using species of temperate, subtropical and tropical climates (Brazilian Fruit Yearbook, 2017)
In the production sector for peach tree plants, it is interesting that rootstocks show rapid growth in both height and stem diameter, since in Brazil grafting is performed almost exclusively by active budding or vegetative bud (Mayer et al, 2017)
Stem diameter in particular determines whether the rootstocks are suitable for grafting as early as possible, and should be between 5.0 and 10 mm according to the production standards for peach rootstocks (Brazil, 2005)
Summary
Brazil is one of the largest fruit producers in the world, with soil and climate characteristics suitable for the development of fruit farming using species of temperate, subtropical and tropical climates (Brazilian Fruit Yearbook, 2017). Due to this modernisation of the sector and the importance of plants quality in the success and profitability of the orchard, nurserymen have invested in production and management technology (Peticila et al, 2017; Granatstein et al, 2016), seeking to introduce the use of containers, new substrates, environments with plastic covering (Picolloto et al, 1997), irrigation systems, and organic (Reeve et al, 2017) and mineral fertilisers (Peticila et al, 2017), with the aim of producing rootstocks and grafted plants of high quality These advances contrast with the production of Prunus persica plants in Brazil, where according to Fischer et al (2016), the traditional method of rootstock production still generally predominates, in which sowing is still carried out in the field, using a mixture of seeds of scion cultivars obtained from the peach-processing industry. There is still little knowledge of the nutritional requirements and the physiological and growth responses of plants of these genotypes in production systems in protected environments using different substrates and mineral fertiliser
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