The Mineral Composition of the Alcoholic Extract of Potato Leaves and Its Relationship to Crop Yields

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Abstract
Alcoholic extracts from homologous leaves of Irish Cobbler potatoes differentially fertilized growing in a Matanzas red clay were analyzed for N, P2O5, K3O, Ca and Mg. Results were expressed as % of the dried extract. Leaf samples were taken 52 days after planting. Soxhlet extractors were used. The yields were found to be directly correlated with the sum of those nutrients in the alc. leaf extract and with the proportion which N, P2O5 and K2O bore to each other. Increments of K2O in the fertilizer increased the yield and the K2O content of the alc. leaf extract. Increments of N and P2O5 did not increase the yield nor the % of these elements in the leaf extract. However, the % of P2O5 in the latter varied directly with that of K2O. When no K2O was applied, the % of both K2O and P2O5 in the leaf extract were low even when the same amt. of P2O5 was applied in the fertilizer. An inverse relationship was found between the K2O content and that of Ca and Mg. Similarly yielding plots appear to have a similar N-P-K ratio (N-P-K units). High yielding plots showed a higher % K2O and a lower % N in the N-P-K unit than low yielding plots. Similar results were obtained on sugar cane investigations previously conducted by the writer et al.