Nutrient uptake by potato crops grown on two soils with contrasting physical properties

Abstract

Potatoes were grown on two contrasting soils but in adjacent sites to investigate the effect of soil type on tuber production, nutrient uptake and nutrient inflow rates (uptake rate per unit length of root). The year of the study was wetter than normal. Tuber growth, root growth and nutrient uptake were all greater on the coarse rather than the fine-textured soil. However there was no difference in nutrient inflow rates between plants growing in the two soils. Therefore, it was concluded that the crop on the finer textured soil did not have an adequate nutrient supply, particularly of N, relative to the crop on the coarser-textured soil. The reasons for the low supply of nitrogen in the fine textured soil are not clear, but it might have been due to the smaller root system or to enhanced losses of nitrogen by denitrification caused by the combination of soil physical properties and poor drainage in a wet year.

Deep root uptake of leachable nitrogen in two soil types is reduced by high availability of soil nitrogen in fodder radish grown as catch crop

“…Meanwhile when compared in the same study, beetroot was found to grow deeper than 1.5 m depth in both sandy loam and coarse sand (Hefner et al, 2019). In our present study, due to the similar bulk densities of two soils in the greenhouse experiment, the deeper rooting depth and higher root intensity of fodder radish growing in sandy loam than in loamy sand soil might not be ascribed to mechanical impedance, aeration, or soil hydraulic conductivity, factors that have been identified in other studies as causing differences in root growth among soil types (Mackie-Dawson et al 1990;Tennant et al 2001). Some possible explanations for difference in root growth could be ascribed to differences in clay content.…”

“…Root distribution at depth has been shown to be related to soil type. Soil texture is assumed to affect root development because soil properties, such as clay content, soil resistance and porosity, appear to influence root growth (Breuning-Madsen 1985;Mackie-Dawson et al 1990;Tennant et al 2001). For example, roots of chicory (Cichorium intybus) were found to reach to 2.5 m in sandy loam (Thorup-Kristensen 2006), whereas roots only grew to 0.75 m depth in coarse sand (Askegaard and Eriksen 2007).…”

The in‐season nitrogen concentration in the potato tuber as the yield driver

“…As a rule, it is limited to the vines that are the most important part of the potato used for nutrient diagnostics (Grzebisz et al., 2018; MacKay, Carefoot, & Entz, 1987). There is not much data available on the nutrients that support N in its impact on tuber yield development, such as P, K, and Mg (Mackie‐Dawson, Millard, & Robinson, 1990).…”