The nitrogen nutrition of the peach tree. IV. Storage and mobilization of nitrogen in mature trees

Abstract

An experiment was carried out on 8-year-old peach trees in the field to further study the chemical composition of storage nitrogen in mature trees and to relate tree performance in one growing season to the level of storage nitrogen in tree tissues during the previous winter.

Storage nitrogen in dormant trees consisted mainly of soluble organic nitrogen, and free arginine was a principal constituent of this fraction. The arginine nitrogen content of the soluble nitrogen fraction increased with increasing nitrogen supply, but values were low compared with those found in young peach trees.

The concentration of arginine in roots of dormant trees was the most sensitive indicator of the nitrogen status of the trees. In comparison, conventional leaf analysis for total nitrogen in midsummer was only about one-half as sensitive as an index of nitrogen status. Since there could be objections to using root tissue for analysis it is of interest to note that the next best estimate of the nitrogen status of the trees was given by the level of arginine nitrogen in leaf + flower buds.

The growth of new shoots and especially the nitrogen content of leaves were in proportion to the levcl of storage nitrogen in dormant trees before growth commenced. However, flowering performance and fruit set per tree were not dependent upon the level of storage nitrogen in the trees. Flowers at full bloom from nil nitrogen and plus nitrogen treatments contained approximately the same content of total nitrogen and this may be the reason why nitrogen treatments did not influence fruit set. Nitrogen analyses and field observations indicated that stored nitrogen in nil nitrogen trees was preferentially used for reproductive processes rather than for vegetative growth.

The amount of total nitrogen per leaf first increased and then decreased with elapsed time during the growing season. This latter loss was attributed to migration of nitrogen from ageing leaves to fruits and/or woody tissues in late summer and early autumn. Nitrogen treatment did not significantly alter the proportion of total nitrogen lost per leaf at this time, but the amount of total nitrogen lost per leaf usually increased with increasing nitrogen supply.

Results are compared with those obtained in earlier work and the importance of reaccumulation of nitrogen from abscising leaves in the nitrogen economy of the trees is briefly discussed.