CONSTANT NUTRIENTS AND MOISTURE FOR PRECISION NUTRIENT GRADIENTS

Nutrition of plants is primarily dependent upon combinations of factors that contribute to the ionic root environment.
There are several categories of primary factors that can alter the root ionic environment, namely: (a) soil cation exchange and organic matter; (b) additions of fertilizer and amendments; (c) rainfall, irrigation and movement of moisture in the soil; (d) removal of nutrients by the crop; and (e) the resulting inter-relationships.
Improved production is frequently accomplished by additions of fertilizers.
Soil and plant tissue tests which are measures of factors that alter the ionic environment aid in developing better nutrition programs.
It is suggested that a measure of the soil solution (ionic root environment) might be a better measure of the resultant inter-related dynamic factors of the soil plant relationship than a static measure of individual factors that alter the ionic composition of soil solution.
Furthermore, if the normally heterogenous root environment can be stabilized with a precision controlled nutrient gradient, then nutritional research could approach a validity which has more universal acceptance.

There has been a long history of research on the relation of plant growth to the soil solution composition, but for the most part such research has not gained significance and emphasis has been given to other research approaches.
Pearson [9] has defined the soil solution as a quasi equilibrium solution of electrolytes that occur in the soil under

Symposium on Nutrition and Fertilization of Vegetables

C.M. Geraldson

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1973.29.9