The importance of early season phosphorus nutrition

A review of studies conducted in a range of plant species indicated the importance of an adequate supply of P during early crop growth and outlined plant adaptations for accessing early season P. Potential implications of the requirement for early season P in the development of management practices to optimize P supply for crop production were also discussed. Phosphorus plays a critical role in energy reactions in the plant. Deficits can influence essentially all energy requiring processes in plant metabolism. Phosphorus stress early in the growing season can restrict crop growth, which can carry through to reduce final crop yield. Deficiencies during early growth generally have a greater negative influence on crop productivity than P restrictions imposed later in growth. Plants respond to P deficiencies by adaptations that increase the likelihood of producing some viable seed. The adaptations increase the ability of the plant to access and accumulate P and include modification of rhizosphere pH, diversion of resources to root production, increased root proliferation in high-P regions, and formation of associations with vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizae. Plants differ in strategies adopted and in efficiency of P absorption. Effective nutrient management for optimal crop production must ensure that P is supplied to the crop in adequate amounts early in the growing season. It is important that we develop methods to accurately predict the early season P supply from the soil, in order to avoid either over-fertilization or crop deficiencies. Practices to provide adequate P early in plant growth include placement of P fertilizer in or near the seed-row and maintenance of adequate concentrations of plant-available P in the soil through a long-term nutrient management strategy. Other possible management practices could include enhancement of seed concentrations of P, manipulation of tillage system and crop sequence, improved activity of mycorrhizae and other microbiological agents such as Penicillium bilaii to increase phytoavailability of soil P, or genetic selection of crops with an enhanced ability for early season uptake of P from both soil and fertilizer sources. As plants differ in relative abilities to access P from the soil and fertilizer applications, nutrient management must be tailored to the specific crop, in order to optimize P supply and crop productivity. By restricting fertilizer applications to situations where P supply is limiting to crop production and by use of effective P management practices, we can optimize the economic of fertilizer use while avoiding negative impacts on environmental quality.