Evaluation of Nutrient Removal from Different Parts of Koroneiki Olive Trees Grown in Sandy Soil as a Base of Fertilizer Recommendation in Egypt

Aims: To evaluate nutrient status in Koroneiki olive trees grown in sandy soils and calculate the amount of nutrients annually removed by the olive tree.

Study Design: Costate Statistical package, in order to calculate means, maximum, minimum, standard deviations (SD), with 12 replicates

Place and Duration of Study: El-FIFA farm which is located at km 48 of Cairo-Alexandria road in the north west of Egypt, between January 2011 and December 2012.

Methodology: This experiment was carried out on 10 years-old olive trees cv. Koroneki grown on a loamy sand soil. The trees are cultivated at 6 x 6 meters distance (278 tree/ha-1) and grown using standard cultural practices and subjected to moderate pruning every year. Flesh and pit were separated, weighed and dried. Nutrient concentrations in the flesh and pit were determined and used to quantify the nutrients removed by fruit. The materials removed in pruning were separated to branches and leaves, weighed and dried. Based on the dry matter and nutrient concentration in the different tissues, the amounts of nutrients removed annually in pruning were calculated. Nutrient removals were calculated for every organ, by multiplying dry weight by nutrient concentration. These amounts were added together, to obtain the total nutrient removal/tree.

Results: Leaves have sufficient contents of N, P, K, Ca, Na, Mn, Zn, Cu and B while the level of both Fe and Mg was high. Nutrients removed annually/tree were: 265.24 g N; 37.93 g P; 353.93 g K; 122.67 g Ca; 76.94 g Mg, 74.78 g Na; 7.288 g Fe; 0.773 g Mn;0.514 g Zn, 0.213 g Cu and 0.663 g B., when the yield was77.33 Kg/tree.

Conclusion: It was found under moderate pruning, that fruit and pruned material removed large amounts of nutrients, which can become insufficient for high oil yields in sandy soils. The results obtained are helpful in calculation fertilizer recommendations.