The relationship between the growth and mineral composition of the foliage of Japanese larch (Larix leptolepis, Murr.)

Summary

Investigations on young Japanese larch trees growing on a heterogeneous site, have revealed significant linear correlations between the height of the trees and concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and ash in the needles, but only doubtfully so in the case of calcium. Analysis of the multiple regression of height on the concentrations of these nutrients suggests that only the contributions made by nitrogen and potassium are significant and a regression equation relating height to the concentration of these two nutrients in the needles has been calculated. The function 123.27% N + 188.69% K − 180.91 provides an estimate of tree height with a standard error of ± 40.9 cm and with a highly significant multiple correlation coefficient of .916. It is argued from these results that, under the conditions of the experiment and the range of concentrations encountered, the height growth of the trees is limited by deficiencies in both nitrogen and potassium.