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Effect of Soil Temperature on Rate of Barley Development and Nutrition¹

Results from this experiment indicate that for barley plants harvested at equal stages of morphological development, low soil temperatures per se are not deterimental to growth. Barley was grown to maturity in agrowth room at soil temperatures of 9, 15.5, and 22C with either 9 or 44 ppm fertilizer phosphorus. At a given stage of plant development, dry matter production and N and P uptake were usually lowest at a soil temperature of 22C. Dry weights, grain yields, and nutrient uptake at 9C usually equalled or exceeded those at 15.5C — the soil temperature considered optimum for barely production. At 9C growth was very slow until the barley developed to the 4-leaf stage, but thereafter approximated the growth rate at higher soil temperatures. Nutrient uptake and water use data suggest that the slow initial growth rate at 9C may be due to restricted nutrient translocation from roots to tops, rather than to reduced rate of uptake of water or nutrients. Soil temperatures affected both the growth rate and water use rate, resulting in only a small effect of soil temperature on total water used to reach a given growth stage.

Key Words: Plant morphology • Plant nutrition • Traslocation • Top/root ratio

² Research Soil Scientists, Northern Great Plains Research Center, Manclan, North Dakota 58554. (Grunes is now at the USDA Plant, Soil, and Nutrition Laboratory, Ithaca, N. Y.)

Received for publication November 14, 1969.