Nutrient absorption in the oil palm variety “Compacta X Ghana” in nursery

Abstract

The absorption of nutrients in the Compacta x Ghana variety was calculated in nurseries of Elaeis guineensis in the southern region of Costa Rica. A nursery section of the company Palma Tica S.A. of approximately 5,000 plants was used and a state of nutritional adequacy was provided for 300 days after sowing (dds). Plants were selected by calculating the confidence interval according to standard deviation and sample size at an alpha of 0.01, for variables bulb diameter and leave length at each sampling date (45 dds). In addition, temperature was measured daily. Selected oil palms were cleaned and separated into aerial and root fractions, which were dried at 65ºC for 48 hours. After drying, aerial and root fractions were weighed and sent to the Palma Tica S.A. Soil and Foliar Laboratory to determine N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Si, Al, Fe, Cu, Zn, Mn and B concentration. A database was constructed (n = 4256) and the results were modeled with a nonlinear regression model with the RStudio statistical program, to identify the best fit equation for nutrient absorption. It was found that seedlings accumulated 3848 degree days of temperature up to 300 dds with a maximum weight of 138.5 g.plant-1. The best absorption adjustment (Pr = 0.001) was an exponential model (y = a exp (b * dds)) with a correlation of 0.60-0.84 for Al and Fe, and> 0.94 for the other nutrients. It was concluded that maximum absorption for oil palm plants in nursery was 2.9 g N, > 2.1 g K, > 1.4 g Si, > 1.3 g Ca, > 0.4 g Mg, > 0.3 g P, > 0.3 g S, > 124 mg Fe, > 11.8 mg Mn, > 4.9 mg B, > 4.1 mg Zn and > 3.4 mg Cu.