Nutrient Removals by Pinestraw Harvesting in Slash Pine Plantations in Florida

Abstract

Abstract Pinestraw harvesting is an important industry in the southeastern United States. There is a need to understand how fertilization can be used efficiently to sustain or increase long-term pinestraw yields and avoid adverse environmental consequences. The effects of fertilization on needlefall nutrient concentrations, pinestraw yields, and nutrient removals on soils with contrasting soil nutrient sorption potential (Entisol vs. Ultisol) were compared using two midrotation slash pine plantations in North Florida. Diammonium phosphate was applied at 0, 144, 430, or 718 kg ha–1 in the spring of 2009 and 2010. Pinestraw was harvested annually in 2009–12. Needlefall mass, pinestraw yields, total Kjeldahl nitrogen concentrations in needlefall and pinestraw, and total Kjeldahl nitrogen, P, K, Ca, and Mg removals increased with fertilization. Diammonium phosphate at 718 kg ha–1 year–1 increased pinestraw yield over the control by 37 and 35 percent 2 years after the second fertilization, and by 11 percent (from 21.5 to 23.8 Mg ha–1) and 12 percent (from 25.0 to 28.1 Mg ha–1) over the 4-year control totals, at Entisol and Ultisol sites, respectively. Differences between sites were larger than fertilization response for most variables. Yields, nutrient concentrations, and removals were higher at the more fertile Ultisol than Entisol and, at both sites, higher than most reported in the literature.