Molybdenum uptake by French Beans on two recent Soil

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Abstract
A green-house experiment with French beans, Phaseolus vulgaris, was conducted to examine the uptake of applied molybdenum on two market garden topsoils, one a saline gley recent soil of pH 7.6, the other recent soil from alluvium of pH 5.6. The molybdenum concentration both in beans harvested at the canning stage and in the tops was similar for each soil despite large differences in pH and base status. Molybdenum applied in combination with superphosphate appeared to be readily available on each soil. On the saline gley soil approximately 60% of the applied molybdenum was recovered in the tops and beans compared with 40% on the more acid recent soil from alluvium. When the latter soil was limed to pH 7.5 molybdenum recovery was doubled. Superphosphate applied alone depressed molybdenum uptake on both soils. The depressing effect attributed to the sulphate component of the superphosphate was overcome by liming. It is concluded from this green-house experiment that availability of both native and applied molybdenum is high and of a similar order for each topsoil. In the field much higher molybdenum levels in plants have previously been reported for this and other saline gley recent soils, which suggests that the lower gley horizon may contribute more soluble molybdenum to plants than does the topsoil.