Abstract
Most fertilizer phosphorus (P) is sorbed by soil rather than being taken up by crops. We hypothesize enriching wheat seed with P before sowing the crop will reduce requirement of fertilizer P for subsequent wheat production. We produced P-enriched wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) seed by soaking the seed in different concentrations of potassium phosphate solution. We found that ~0.35 M potassium phosphate was the most effective concentration for P-enrichment of the seed. In pot and field experiments we found that the P-enriched seed required ~60% less fertilizer P than seed not soaked with potassium phosphate before sowing. Increases in shoot P content could not be explained only by the increase of seed P-enrichment, suggesting that P acquisition from soil was also enhanced. Under hydroponic conditions we found that root length was greater in seedlings grown from P-enriched seed with higher specific root length than in seedlings grown from non-P-enriched seed. We conclude P-enrichment of wheat seed before sowing reduces fertilizer P requirements of plants.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to H. Araki for helpful discussions. This study was financially supported by the Research Fellowships for Young Scientists and a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.
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Responsible Editor: Richard W. Bell.
An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11104-010-0347-9
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Sekiya, N., Yano, K. Seed P-enrichment as an effective P supply to wheat. Plant Soil 327, 347–354 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-009-0058-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-009-0058-2