Nutrient Demand of Oil Palm Hybrids in Tropical America

Nowadays there are several oil palm regions in Latin America with plantings of the OxG material, which is a cross of Elaeis oleifera (American oil palm) with E. guineensis (African oil palm). There are no studies in the agronomy or nutrition of the OxG hybrid. This study tries to evaluate the minimum nutritional requirements for two OxG crosses in Colombia.

IPNI-2010-COL-16

07 May 2014

2013 Annual Interpretive Summary


The aim in the second phase of this study is to estimate the effect of five application rates of N, P, K, and B in the growth and yield of two crosses of Elaeis oleifera with Elaeis guineensis ("OxG" hybrids) by using a factorial experiment arranged in a central composite design. The study was replicated at three locations—the Casanare, Meta and Tumaco Departments of Colombia—with all of them being important oil palm areas and having the presence of bud rot disease. The soils at these locations are acidic (pH from 4.3 to 4.8) with very low to intermediate P concentrations (3 to 18 ppm), and variable exchangeable Al (30 to 70%). Two OxG hybrids were evaluated: “M1” from La Cabaña (Coarí x LaMé) and “M2” from Unipalma (Oleifera of uncertain origin x Mongona). The plants were transplanted from nursery in the second half of 2011. In 2013, we had a second year of measurement of vegetative growth, i.e., plant height (H), leaf area of leaf number nine (LA9), dry mass of leaf number nine (DM9), rate of leaf production (RLP) and transversal petiole section area at the leaf base (TPS). Also, chemical analysis of leaf tissue was carried out on samples taken from leaf number nine (the commonly used leaf seventeen is not recommended for young plants).

Contrary to the initial effects observed in the nursery phase of the study, we did not detect a strong isolated effect of N on all vegetative growth parameters. On the other hand, several interactions among nutrients were observed: P and N showed a relatively small effect in the M1 hybrid with increases in H and RLP, while there was a highly significant interaction of K with N in both M1 and M2 hybrids. As an example, the highest RLP was found for M2 with the highest values of K and low or intermediates values of N (27 leaves per yr), while low values of N and K produced around 7 leaves less per year (i.e., 20). In summary, K appeared to be a very important nutrient in the growth of the OxG hybrids, even more than N in this second year of growth, but the largest effect of K occurs when N is not deficient. Boron showed a net negative effect on all the vegetative growth parameters, especially with M1. We feel that B is not a fundamental nutrient in the initial phases of the OxG hybrid, and actually has a detrimental effect, especially, with high application rates. The nutrient content of LA9 followed different patterns in both hybrids indicating that each plant genetic material should have its own reference diagnostic tables.