Resumo. The eucalyptus has a pronounced demand for phosphorus (P) in the initial growth. Therefore, its P critical level is higher in the early stages of development, decreasing with plant age. The study was carried out to evaluate the response to fertilization and relative efficiency (RE) of phosphates (RPs) in the initial growth of eucalyptus. For this, two experiments were conducted in a greenhouse, from October 2010 to February 2011, at the University of Santa Catarina (UDESC), in Lages, Santa Catarina state, one with Eucalyptus dunnii and another with Eucalyptus benthamii using the following phosphorus sources: Bayovar, Gafsa, Djebel and triple superphosphate, plus a control without P. These P treatments were applied in soils with and without liming. The experimental design was completely randomized in a 5 x 2 factorial arrangement and with four replications. Plants were grown for 110 days and after harvest, were determined dry matter (by difference of wet weight and dry weight) and P accumulation in plant tissue from different parts of the plant (determined by spectrophotometry at a wavelength of 882 nm after reduction of phospho-molibidate complex with ascorbic acid). The relative efficiency of RPs (%) was calculated from data obtained from dry matter of shoots and total dry matter. For the correlation between the parameters of P content in the plants and soil available P it was applied Pearson’s correlation (P <0.05). All sources of P were similar to each other, but were higher than the control one, however, the use of these sources resulted in an increase in dry matter production and P content accumulated in the shoots of Eucalyptus benthamii and Eucalyptus dunnii compared to the control treatment regardless the soil amendment. In soil without lime, the RE averages were 75, 91 and 94%, respectively for RPs Bayovar, Gafsa and Djebel. For soils with lime, the RE averages were 65, 24 and 25% for the same phosphate sources. In treatments without liming the relative efficiency of RPs was higher compared to soils with lime.