Chlorine Nutrition of Oil Palm Tree (Elaeis Guinq Jacq) in Eastern Amazon

Abstract

In Brazil, the status of chlorine (Cl) nutrition in plants is still poorly studied. The micronutrient Cl plays an important role in cultures such as coconut and oil palm trees. This study aimed to evaluate the status of chlorine nutrition in oil palm trees as a function of planting age, which ranged from two to eight years of cultivation. The experiment was conducted in Tailândia, state of Pará, Brazil. The soil of the area is characterized as Yellow Latosol of medium texture. A total of four oil palm trees were sampled for each age and the following variables were analyzed: leaf, petioles, rachis, palm heart, arrows, stipe, male inflorescences, peduncles, spikelets and fruits, as well as the accumulated, recycled and immobilized levels of Cl. Oil palm trees proved to be demanding in Cl and the accumulation in the different vegetative organs increased with the development of the plant. The stipe was the main storing vegetative organ of this micronutrient. The highest demand of Cl (16.9-26.0 g/kg) occurred in the palm heart, while for male inflorescence, the values ranged from 3.3-4.1 g/kg of Cl. The levels of Cl recycled by the plant were higher than the immobilized and exported levels considering the development up to 4 years of age. After this age, the levels of recycled Cl are lower than those immobilized. As for the amount of Cl exported by clusters in 8-year-old plants, the values were 3.2 and 1.3 times lower than the recycled and immobilized levels, respectively.