Sugar beets (Beta vulgaris L. cv. F58-554H1) were cultured hydroponically in growth chambers. Leaf orthophosphate levels were varied nutritionally. The effect of decreased leaf phosphate (low-P) status was determined on the rate of photosynthesis (PN) and on pool sizes of leaf ribulose-l,5-bisphosphate (RuBP), 3-phosphoglycerate (PGA), triose phosphate (triose-P), fructose-1,6-bisphosphate (FBP), fructose-6-phosphate (F6P), glucose-6-phosphate (G6P), adenylates and nicotinamide nucleotides during photosynthetic induction (measured at 0, 1.5, 5 and 30 min from irradiation). p N reached 50 % of its final value in 4 min in control leaves and 10 min in low-P leaves. Hence the increase in the length of induction period in low-P leaves was most likely due to a slow build-up in RuBP: ATP, NADPH, PGA, and FBP all reached high levels in 5 min at which time RuBP was half and PN 16 % of their eventual values at 30 min. The slow-build-up of RuBP did not appear to be due to insufficient ATP and NADPH for the conversion of PGA to triose-P; rather, low-P seemed to limit photosynthetic induction somewhere in the sequence of reactions between triose-P and RuBP formation.