Mineral nutrients, biomass and litter deposition on Eucalyptus plantation under different residue management

Abstract

It was evaluated the effect of different residue management systems in the plant nutrition status, nutrient contents in the litter and litter biomass yield, on Eucalyptus grandis plantation. Samples were taken on four residue management systems: (i) removal of all residues from previous harvesting and NPK fertilization; (ii) maintenance of all residues on soil surface and NPK fertilization; (iii) removal all at bark  and commercial-size crop stems over 3 cm diameter and NPK fertilization; (iv) removal of all residues from previous harvesting, NPK fertilization and addition of industrial waste (15 t.ha-1 of pulp and paper sludge, C:N ratio 25:1 and 4 t.ha-1 of wood ash, C:N ratio 30:1). Results showed that the maintenance of the forest residues on site improved the nutritional status of trees and increased productivity. Addition of industrial waste allowed expressive increase of Eucalyptus sp growth. Possible excesses of Ca from the industrial waste used  should be corrected, to avoid nutritional unbalance in the trees; independent of the treatment used, the amounts of K added to the soil are not enough to maintain appropriate tree nutritional status. Greater amounts of K should be added to correct soil nutritional deficiencies on this element.