No abstract

No abstract

Potassium is important in the growing of fine tobacco. Not only is it the nutrient removed from the soil in the greatest quantity, but it is essential for the vigorous growth of the plant (3). Potassium is also more important than any other element in producing good combustion of the dried leaf (1) and is necessary for choice aroma (5).This value of potassium to the finished tobacco product has a curiously paradoxical aspect, for it has long beeln assumed that much of the importance of this element to any plant lay in its relation to carbohydrate synthesis or translocation. But the type of tobacco grown in the Connecticut Valley is low in carbohydrates, especially starch. Consequently, there is a special interest in the problem of the relationship of potassium to the formation of starch in tobacco plants.It was the aim in this study, as in much recent work, to test the leaves soon after the effects of potassium deficiency had been definitely established but well before the plant had died from lack of this element. From preliminary trials with tobacco, it appeared that seedlings started in soil, transplanted to sand, and treated with a nutrient solution, could be grown normally with the usual elongation of the internodes; or that similar plants, treated in a like manner except for the absence of potassium, would show evidence of a lack of this element during the latter part of the vegetative period. Methods Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacurm, var. Rosenberg) 2 was germiniated and grown in quantity in sandy soil until the seedlings were about two inches tall with four small leaves, from 9 to 15 weeks depending upon the season.

No abstract

No abstract