Concentration of critical nutrients in tolerant and susceptible sorghum lines for use in screening under acid soil field conditions

Abstract

Acid soil infertility is directly related to nutritional imbalances in plants grown on these problem soils. Sorghum genotypes vary tremendously in their ability to take up elements under stress conditions^1,5. No single element concentration can be used when evaluating genotypes for tolerance/susceptibility to acid soils. The complete nutritional profile of the plant plus dry weight production and a visual rating scheme² can be combined to provide reasonable and reliable comparisons of genotypes grown under field conditions of acid soil stress. This information can then be used in a breeding program to develop improved acid soil tolerant germplasm³. This paper reports relative leaf element concentration values from tolerant and susceptible sorghum genotypes grown under five acid soil field environments from 1978 to 1980 in the southeastern United States. The leaf element uptake values are subsequently used to derive an acid soil field tolerance rating in conjunction with dry matter production values and visual rating scores to categorize sorghum genotypes for tolerance or susceptibility.