Abstract
Amazon soils have a low phosphorus (P) availability and few studies have investigated nutrition of palm oil plantations. This study assessed the effects of P nutrition on oil palm organs according to plant age. The experiment was carried out under field conditions, at the enterprise Agropalma S/A, in the municipality of Tailândia, Pará State, Brazil. The experimental design used was completely randomized with four replications and comprised seven treatments: plants age (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 years of planting). We evaluated P concentration, accumulation, and exportation in plant components (leaflets, petioles, stipe, rachis, palm heart, arrows, male inflorescences, peduncles, spikelets, and fruits). Palm heart (10.9 g kg-1) and male inflorescence (3.8 g kg-1) showed the highest P concentrations in the vegetative and reproductive organs, respectively. On the other hand, the largest P accumulations were observed in the stipe (159 g plant-1) and fruits (59 g plant-1), increasing from the 3rd year of age of the plants. Bunches exported the largest P amounts (81 g plant-1), especially in older plants. The oil palm immobilizes (24 kg ha-1) and recycles (23 kg ha-1) a large amount of P, more than it exports (12 kg ha-1) P.
Highlights
Oil palm (Elaeis guineenses Jacq.) is indigenous to Africa and an important source of vegetable oil widely used in the cosmetic and biodiesel industries (LEBID; HENKES, 2015)
We evaluated P concentration, accumulation, and exportation in plant components
An increasing quadratic response was observed in P concentration in vegetative organs, petiole, palm heart, and arrows, at different plant ages (Figures 2a and 2b)
Summary
Oil palm (Elaeis guineenses Jacq.) is indigenous to Africa and an important source of vegetable oil widely used in the cosmetic and biodiesel industries (LEBID; HENKES, 2015). The Amazon region has the largest oil palm cultivated areas in Brazil, covering 38,912 ha, constituting the main matrix for palm oil production in the country (NAHUN et al, 2020). Despite favorable climatic conditions in this region (LOPES and GUILHERME, 2007), several factors still limit the crop full development, such as adequate nutrition, which lead to low average of oil palm yield (17 t ha-1) (HOMMA and REBELLO, 2020). Phosphorus (P) is an essential nutrient for plant growth and functioning, ranked as the second most limiting nutrient to agricultural production (MOHIDIN et al, 2015). P has low availability and is considered the most limiting factor for plant growth (TAN et al, 2010), as observed for oil palm crops in the Brazilian Amazon (RODRIGUES, 1993)
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