Olive tree response to phosphorus application assessed from field and pot experiments
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abstract
Phosphorus is a macronutrient regularly applied in olive
groves even though no studies exist demonstrating the
need for its application. In this work, results of two field
trials and two pot experiments are presented where the
response of olive tree to phosphorus application was studied
from 2013 to 2017. One of the field trials was installed
in a three-year-old olive grove where it was already possible
to start evaluating olive yield. The second field trial
started from just planted young cuttings to evaluate the
biomass produced and phosphorus uptake. One of the pot
experiments consisted on the use of four phosphorus rates
and the other on the use of four different soils and two
phosphorus rates. In the first trial, there was no significant
response to phosphorus application in olive yield or biometric
parameters of the fruit such as fruit size and pulp/
pit ratio. In the other three trials, only in the second pot experiment
an increase in biomass production by the application
of phosphorus was observed. This experiment included
acidic soils, which may have greatly influenced the
availability of phosphorus to the plants. In three of the four
experiments leaf phosphorus concentration increased in
response to phosphorus application. The pot experiments
showed that roots accumulate appreciable amounts of
phosphorus and that the application of phosphorus increased
proportionally more the concentration of phosphorus
in roots than in leaves or stems. In one of the experiments
the root/shoot ratio increased with the application
of phosphorus. These results seem to indicate that roots
are important tissues for phosphorus accumulation which
can buffer phosphorus in the shoots in periods of lower
phosphorus availability in the soils and may contribute to
explain the difficulty to find a response of the olive tree to
the phosphorus application under field conditions.
