Developmental Stage Affects Nutrient Uptake by Four Snapdragon Cultivars

Abstract

Nutrient uptake by `Apache', `Jersey City', `Peoria', and `Philadelphia' snapdragons (Antirrhinum majus L.) was compared at three developmental stages: Stage I, vegetative to bud initiation; Stage II, bud initiation to visible bud; and Stage III, visible bud to anthesis. Significant differences in uptake occurred between one or more developmental stages for all nutrients tested: \batchmode \documentclass[fleqn,10pt,legalpaper]{article} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amsmath} \pagestyle{empty} \begin{document} \(\mathrm{NO}_{3}^{-}\mathrm{-}\mathrm{N},\mathrm{NH}_{4}^{+}\mathrm{-}\mathrm{NB}\) \end{document}, B, Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Mo, P, and Zn. Uptake of most of the nutrients increased or remained high during Stage III. These results indicate that the current cultural practice of stopping fertilization at bud elongation should be reexamined. Differences in uptake between cultivars were found only for \batchmode \documentclass[fleqn,10pt,legalpaper]{article} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amsmath} \pagestyle{empty} \begin{document} \(\mathrm{NO}_{3}^{-}\mathrm{-}\mathrm{N}\) \end{document}, as uptake by `Apache' was significantly higher than uptake by `Philadelphia'.