Trunk nutrition in fruit crops: An overview

Abstract

Nutritional trunk injection is an alternative to conventional or widely used fertilization methods, to supply nutrients to fruit tree crops that are quite fast, highly efficient, and economical. This method inserts substances directly to the vascular system of the tree. Injecting compounds into the vascular system of a tree requires knowledge of a woody plant system and the understanding of how these compounds move throughout the vascular system. Trunk nutrition is a useful technique as a complement to conventional fertilization in commercial fields. The application of these techniques includes the correction of deficiencies, particular supplementation for special situations and research applications. In addition, trunk injection used as a nutritional supplement could imply a decrease in the amount of fertilizers applied to the soil that benefits the environment. In this chapter, it is presented an overview of the history, factors that influence trunk injections, trunk anatomy, and previous studies in trunk nutrition to fruit crops.