The relative efficiency of zinc carriers on growth and zinc nutrition of corn

Summary A comparison of different zinc carriers showed that application of Zn-DTPA, Zn-EDTA, Zn-fulvate and ZnSO₄ significantly increased the dry matter yield and zinc uptake by corn over the control treatment where no zinc was applied. The chelates in particular enhanced to a greater extent the uptake of both native and applied sources than that observed with ZnSO₄ as the zinc carrier. Both the dry matter yield and zinc uptake by corn showed a positive and significant relationship with self-diffusion coefficient of zinc showing thereby that diffusion contributed mainly the supply of Zn from the ambient soil matrix to plant roots. The effectiveness of the chelates varied depending on their capacity to retain Zn in a soluble form in the soil solution.It is evident that zinc nutrition of plants in alkaline and calcareous soils can be more effectively regulated by both synthetic and natural chelates or organic manures which contain substantial amount of complexed zinc.Journal Paper No. 1 from the Department of Soil Science and Agric. Chemistry, Tirhut College of Agriculture, Dholi, Muzaffarpur, Bihar, India.