Table 3.

Nitrogen and potassium deficiency severity ratings for Experiment 2 areca palms transplanted from a field nursery with fertilizer applied at three locations and at three rates.

			Nitrogen deficiency rating^{^z}			Potassium deficiency rating
Significant effects	Fertilizer placement	Rate	Three months	Six months	Twelve months	Three months	Six months	Twelve months
	Backfill incorporation		4.66	4.70	4.63	3.94	3.94 ab^{^y}	3.96 b
	Bottom of hole		4.64	4.71	4.65	3.92	4.06 a	4.14 a
	Surface application		4.68	4.71	4.65	3.78	3.85 b	3.99 b
Placement (P-value)			NS^{^x}	NS	NS	NS	0.025	0.025
		0	4.60 b	4.63 b	4.60 b	3.7	3.67 b	3.63 b
		250	4.65 ab	4.70 a	4.62 ab	3.9	3.98 a	4.05 a
		500	4.67 a	4.70 a	4.67 a	3.8	3.93 a	4.04 a
Rate (P-value)			0.047	0.014	0.034	NS	0.011	0.0002
Overall effects (P-values)
Placement			NS	NS	NS	NS	0.0006	0.0001
Rate			NS	NS	NS	NS	NS	NS
Placement × rate			NS	NS	NS	NS	NS	NS

↵^zRatings are on a 1 to 5 scale; 1 = severely deficient, 5 = no deficiency symptoms present.
↵^yMean separation within columns and fertilizer placement and rate groupings by the Waller-Duncan k-ratio method, P = 0.05.
↵^xNon-significant.