Response of newly planted peach and apple trees to superphosphate

Abstract

The response of peach and apple trees to added superphosphate was recorded both in the nursery and later in the orchard after transplanting.

The peach and apple trees responded positively to phosphate applications in both the nursery and the orchard despite the initial presence of medium to high phosphate levels in the soils. Of major interest, too, was the absence of a consistent interaction between the phosphate treatments applied in the separate years. This suggested that the trees could not accumulate enough phosphorus in any one year to influence their response to further phosphate.

Leaf analysis showed two important effects in relation to the phosphate treatments. Firstly, since high rates of application of fertilizer led to only small increases in the levels of phosphorus in the leaves, tree growth rate and phosphate absorption rate are apparently closely coupled. Secondly, the deliberate withholding of phosphate fertilizer from all trees in the fourth season led to a marked decline in the levels of phosphorus in the leaves of both peach and apple, which suggested that phosphate fertilizer should be applied annually to young fruit trees.

With apple, but not peach, increasing the rate of phosphate applied in the third season stimulated the number of flower buds initiated, but this effect was not simply the result of increased vegetative growth. On the other hand, phosphate application to the peach trees in the orchard resulted in a positive fruit set and yield response in the absence of any tree growth response.