Interactions of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium supplied in Leaf Sprays or in Fertilizer added to the Soil

When sugar-beet plants grown in pots were sprayed daily withnutrient solutions supplying nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassiumseparately or in all combinations, with precautions to preventspray falling on the soil in which the plants were grown, allthree nutrients were absorbed through the leaves. In one experimentnitrogen and potassium, and in another only nitrogen, causedincreases in plant dry weight and leaf area. Swedes absorbedphosphorus from leaf sprays and from fertilizer applied to thesoil, but only the fertilizer caused an increase in dry weight. Absorption of any of the nutrients tested from a spray containingmore than one nutrient was unaffected by the presence of othersin the spray, but spraying with nitrogen-containing solutionsincreased the absorption of phosphorus and potassium from thesoil, and potassium in sprays increased the uptake of phosphorusfrom the soil. Nitrogenous fertilizer applied to the soil increased the leafarea of sugar-beet plants, and hence it also increased the amountsof nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium deposited on the leaveswhen they were sprayed with solutions of these nutrients, andthe amounts absorbed from the spray into the plants. Phosphaticfertilizer had no effect on uptake from leaf sprays. Potassicfertilizer did not affect leaf area or the estimated volumeof spray solution retained on the leaves, but it appeared toreduce uptake of potassium from the spray. Dry weight per plant was increased by all three nutrients infertilizer, and sugar yield of the roots was increased by nitrogenand potassium in fertilizer, and by nitrogen in spray. Applicationof a nutrient in leaf spray reduced the responses in dry weightand sugar yield to the same nutrient applied in fertilizer tothe soil. Less nitrogen, but more phosphorus, was taken up from the leafsprays than from fertilizer. Nutrients from sprays producedsmaller increases in total dry weight and in dry weight perunit of absorbed nutrient than the same nutrient from fertilizer. The apparent percentage recovery of nitrogen applied in spray,based on estimates of the volumes of solution retained on theleaves, was unaffected by fertilizer treatment, that of phosphoruswas increased by nitrogen fertilizer, and that of potassiumwas increased by nitrogen fertilizer and reduced by potassiumfertilizer. The volume of spray solution held on the leaveswas probably overestimated, so that the highest apparent recovery,about 60 per cent., may represent an almost complete true recovery,because only trivial amounts of the nutrients that had beenapplied in spray remained on the leaf surface to be removedby washing before harvest. Lower apparent recoveries may bedue to reduced uptake from the soil of the nutrient suppliedin spray.