This experiment was carried out in Santa Barbara county, Minas Gerais State, Brazil to evaluate the effect of plant population (PP) on nutrient accumulation and distribution in Eucalyptus grandis. Plant population varied from 500 to 5,000 trees ha-1, laid out in a randomized block design with three replicates. The assessments were performed when the trees were 31 month-old, by sampling tissues from the above ground components of an average tree per plot, forest floor, and soil to the depth of 195 cm. The relations among P, N, K and Mg contents in the above ground biomass of the tree, the P, Ca and Mg utilization efficiency by the stem, and PP were better described by quadratic equations. A nutrient balance sheet, estimate based on the nutrients accumulated in the biomass and on the amount available or exchangeable in the soil, indicated the P, K and Ca would limit tree growth in the next cycle, 31 months after planting, for PP above 833 trees ha-1.
Eucalypt; spacing; mineral nutrition; biomass