Iron status of crops in Prince Edward Island and effect of soil pH on plant iron concentration

Abstract

Field studies were conducted in Prince Edward Island (PEI) on the Fe nutrition of cereals and forages and to determine the relationship between plant Fe and soil pH. The Fe concentration in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) and oats (Avena sativa L.) boot stage tissue (BST) and grain ranged from 35 to 65 and from 19 to 42 mg kg−1, respectively, in the control and from 38 to 57 and from 22 to 45 mg kg−1, respectively, in the soil applied Fe treatments. In the foliar applied Fe treatments, the cereal BST contained as much as 121 mg Fe kg−1 in the FeSO4.7H2O treatments and up to 86 mg kg−1 in the chelate-Fe treatment, but neither of these two sources increased Fe concentration in the grain. In the first cut of forages in the foliar treatments, the Fe was as high as 131 mg Fe kg−1, but no differences were generally found between the control and Fe treatments in the second cut. Over the soil pH ranges of 4.5–6.9, no consistency was found in the correlation coefficient (r) values between plant Fe and soil pH. In spite of the Fe concentrations as low as 19 mg kg−1 in cereal grain and 23 mg kg−1 in forages in the control treatments, no yield response to added Fe was found. However, the Fe concentrations as found in this study would be considered deficient for livestock and mineral supplements of Fe to the feeds may be desirable. Key words: Cereals, forages, soil pH, plant iron, acid soils

Iron and Zinc Concentrations in Grain and Flour of Winter Wheat As Affected by Foliar Application

“…The current findings agreed with results conducted in West Asia (24,32,33) and are consistent with previous results indicating that Fe can move from leaf to grain (28,31,44) but are inconsistent with results found in Canada (34). It is notable that the effects of foliar Fe application on grain Fe concentration depended on climate, soil condition, and timing of application.…”

“…In this study, foliar application of micronutrients did not increase significantly the yield of three wheat cultivars, a finding that is consistent with some results (33,34) but is inconsistent with other results obtained from nutrient deficient soils (23)(24)(25)32).…”

Effect of nitrogen on uptake, remobilization and partitioning of zinc and iron throughout the development of durum wheat

“…In field-grown wheat, Fe remobilization to cereal grains has been shown to be very limited. In a study by Gupta (1991), foliar application of Fe fertilizers was not effective in increasing grain Fe concentration in oat and barley. One major reason for the inefficiency of foliar Fe fertilizers in increasing grain Fe concentration could be poor phloem mobility of Fe.…”

Biofortification of wheat with iron through soil and foliar application of nitrogen and iron fertilizers

“…For example in wheat, foliar application of Zn fertilizers improved grain Zn concentration by up to 2-or 3-fold depending on the plant availability of Zn in soils (Cakmak 2008;Cakmak et al 2010b), whereas increases in grain Fe concentration by foliar spray of FeSO 4 or Fe chelates did not exceed 36% . Moreover, some work has showed that plants did not respond to foliar Fe fertilization in terms of grain Fe concentration (Gupta 1991).…”