Nursery fertilisation affects the frost-tolerance and plant quality of Eucalyptus globulus Labill. cuttings

Eucalyptus globulus is widely used in productive exotic plantations but the expansion of these plantations is limited by low temperatures, as its cold hardening capacity is limited (0.5 to 3.0 degrees C). It is not well understood how nursery fertilisation affects the field performance of plants. This led us to study the effect of three mineral nutrients (N, P and K) on both plant quality and frost tolerance. The experiment comprised eight growth treatments in which a high dose (H-) or a low dose (L-) of each nutrient was applied. Nitrogen was the nutrient that determined shoot growth, new root growth after transplanting (root egress), frost tolerance and field performance. Performance was better with treatment H-N than with treatment L-N, leaf nitrogen contents being 1.53 and 0.89% respectively. The effects of phosphorus and potassium were not significant between treatments for any parameter. The exception was P which, when interacting with N, favoured root egress for the H-N treatment. It was concluded that nursery fertilisation offers a management tool for eucalyptus growers concerned with plant stock quality.