Sodium and Rubidium as Possible Nutrients for Sugar Beet Plants

Sodium Absorption by Intact Sugar Beet Plants

“…The effects of Na on the growth of the sugar beet plants are well documented elsewhere (1,2). However, additional facts are noted from the present results.…”

“…Ms NBI X NB4 and of growing the plants by the water culture technique were reported earlier (1). The present study consisted of low K Na treatments, and high K Na treatments.…”

Sodium as nutrient and toxicant

“…From beet to chocolate: the classic literature-Na + benefits are common It has long been known that Na + can be of benefit to the growth of algae and cyanobacteria (Allen and Arnon 1955;Simonis and Urbach 1963;Brownell and Nicholas 1968), but, for higher plants, the reputation of the ion as a toxic one has held sway (Maathuis 2007;Munns and Tester 2008;Kronzucker and Britto 2011;Cheeseman 2013), and the vast majority of higher-plant literature on the ion has focused on this aspect, even though studies in a wide variety of species, including such important cultivated ones as tomato, potato, carrot, cacao, and cereals, have demonstrated the potential benefit of the ion for higher-plant growth as well (Wheeler and Adams 1905;Lehr 1941;Lehr and Wybenga 1955;Woolley 1957;Williams 1960;Brownell 1965;Brownell and Jackman 1966;Montasir et al 1966;El-Sheikh et al 1967;Hylton et al 1967;Draycott and Durrant 1976;Galeev 1990;Takahashi and Maejima 1998;Gattward et al 2012). It is important to emphasize that every substance has a threshold below which it is not toxic, in accordance with the "sola dosis facit venemum" (only the dose makes the poison) principle, famously attributed to Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (Paracelsus), but, for Na + , beneficial effects are seen well into the range of concentrations that would be considered high for ordinary nutrient ions, such as NO 3 − , NH 4 + , or K + , and, in the cases of halophytes, go far beyond that (Flowers and Colmer 2008).…”

“…Among the species examined, the Chenopodiaceae, including the important crops spinach, beet, and sugar beet, have received particularly detailed attention, both in terms of physiological and field investigation (Larson and Pierre 1953;Lehr and Wybenga 1955;Tinker 1965;El-Sheikh et al 1967;Draycott et al 1970;Judel and Kuhn 1975;Draycott and Durrant 1976;Jeschke 1977;Milford et al 1977;Durrant et al 1978;Draycott and Bugg 1982;Flowers and Läuchli 1983;Nunes et al 1984;Pessarakli and Tucker 1985;Peck et al 1987;Magat and Goh 1990;Haneklaus et al 1998;Subbarao et al 1999a, b). Beneficial effects in this family are pronounced, and this may well relate to their ecological habit as ruderal, r-strategic, species (Desplanque et al 1999), capable of substantial growth rates and physiological flexibility in response to rapidly changing environments.…”

Beneficial Effects of Potassium on Growth, Water Relations, Mineral Accumulation and Oxidative Damage of Beta vulgaris in Sodic-alkaline Condition

“…For particular plant species of the Chenopodiaceae, K + localized in vacuoles was substituted by Na + to a high degree, and plants grow on soils with high K-fixing capacity have more potential for this substitution (Subbarao et al, 2000;Wakeel et al, 2010), and supplementation of Na + in reduced amounts eliminated K + -deficient symptoms in conditions of limited K + supply (Wakeel et al, 2011). Therefore, some species of Chenopodiaceae showed particularly strong stimulation by low Na + application in either low-or high-K conditions (EI-Sheikh et al, 1967;Subbarao et al, 2003).…”