PLANT NUTRITION AND THE HYDROGEN ION

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Abstract
Studies with spinach and potatoes at constant and controlled levels of exchangeable nutrients in the soil but at different degrees of acidity, pH 52 and 6.8, showed far greater mobilization of the nutrients into the crop when the soil was acid than when it was neutral. This occurred when the supply of exchangeable cations in the soil was constant. In some castes this reflected itself as increased crop yields, but in all cases of the chemical analyses it was evident in the form of increased conc. of many of the elements in the plant tissue. Of the possible cations taken by plants, Ca, Mg, Sr, and Mn were moved into the spinach crop in greater amts. and greater concs. in the presence of significant H-ion conc. than in the soil that was nearly neutral. The only other nutrient ions considered in the study, K and phosphate, manifested a different behavior. Though their utilization by the crop was not widely different according to the presence or absence of H ions, yet both the totals and the concs. suggested a precipitation-peptization behavior according to the amts. of exchangeable Ca in the soil. The results point to the possible role by the H ion in bringing about a greater availability of the exchangeable nutrients in the soil, so that the presence of this ion may be serving as a benefit rather than as a detriment.

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