MIGRATION OF NUTRIENTS FROM SOIL TO PLANT IN OLIVE ORCHARDS

Abstract

Olive growing is gaining much interest in Slovenia. In thgis work we report the results of the 5 year experiments, on 9 locations, with the cultivar “istrska belica”. The results of soil and plant analyzes of the olive orchard on carstic soil indicated some unexpected facts about macro-nutrient mobility: although the phosphorus in soil is very low, its values in plants are almost optimal. A similar pattern also occurs with magnesium. On the other hand, we would expect low foliar potassium values, as reported in literature for rainfed orchards on calcareous soils, yet they are not. Also calcium levels are not as expected for orchards on carstic soil (higher values), and thus indicate calcium deficiency. It would definitely be interesting to study it in more details. We found that the results show a negative correlation between phosphorus and potassium plant mobility and soil organic matter.