Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T00:57:30.205Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Potassium uptake by potatoes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

T. M. Addiscott  and
J. D. D. Mitchell
T. M. Addiscott
Affiliation:
Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Herts
J. D. D. Mitchell
Affiliation:
Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Herts
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Potatoes (var. Pentland Dell) were grown in pots containing soils from the Bothamsted ley–arable experiments. When about half the initially available K was used, the tops were harvested and the potential limiting K uptake, inferred from K uptakes, was – 4150 cals/equiv. The plants grew on until they exhausted the available K and died, having set tubers. The potential then limiting K uptake, inferred from total K uptakes, was – 4900 cals/equiv., similar to the mean potential in the exhausted soils, – 4710 ± 61 cals/equiv. The significance of these measurements is discussed.

Total K uptake was closely related to the amount of K that had to be removed from each soil to lower the potential to – 4900 cals/equiv. and the relationship suggested that the potatoes did not use any K from initially non-available reserves.

Dry-matter yields of tubers and of tops + roots, and the ratio of the two, were well related to quantity and potential of K in the soil; tuber yield was also well related to K in tops. The K potential needed for maximum yield of tubers exceeded – 2430 cals/equiv.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 74 , Issue 3 , June 1970 , pp. 495 - 500
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1970

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Addiscott, T. M. (1970a). Use of the quantity/potential relationship to provide a scale of the ability of extractants to remove soil potassium. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 74, 119–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Addiscott, T. M. (1970b). The uptake of initially available soil potassium by ryegrass. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 74, 123–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, P. W. (1962). The potassium status of some English soils considered as a problem of energy relationships. Proc. Fertil. Soc. 72, 25–43.Google Scholar
Arnold, P. W. & Close, B. M. (1961). Potassium releasing power of soils from the Agdell rotation experiment assessed by glasshouse cropping. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 57, 381–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avery, B. W. (1964). The soils and land use of the district round Aylesbury and Hemel Hempstead. Mem. Soil Sure. Gt Br.Google Scholar
Bolton, J. & Penny, A. (1968). The effects of potassium and magnesium fertilizers on yield and composition of successive crops of ryegrass, clover, sugarbeet, potatoes, kale and barley on sandy soil at Woburn. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 70, 308–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reitmeier, R. F. (1951). Soil potassium. Adv. Agron. 3, 113–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rothamsted Exp. Stn (1966). Details of the classical and long term experiments up to 1962. Pp. 53–63.Google Scholar
Schopield, R. K. (1947). A ratio law governing the equilibrium of cations in the soil solution. Proc. 11th Int. Cong, pure appl. Chem., London 3, 257–61.Google Scholar
Talibudeen, O. & Dey, S. K. (1968a). Potassium reserves in British soils. I. The Rothamsted classical experiments. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 71, 95–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Talibudeen, O. & Dey, S. K. (1968b). Potassium reserves in British soils. II. Soils from different parent materials. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 71, 405–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodruff, C. M. (1955). The energies of replacement of calcium by potassium in soils. Proc. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. 19, 167–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar