A collander‐type experiment in large tanks of solution culture

Abstract

Several different plant species were grown together in large (400 1) tanks of solution culture in the pattern of the original Collander experiment (Plant Physiol. 16:691) except in the present one, plants were spaced far enough apart that roots could not become entangled so that root‐shoot partitioning could be studied. Two sets of plants were grown in the tanks. One set was with agricultural species and the other was with native desert plants. One tank contained a standard nutrient solution and the second contained the same solution with addition of several cations: Na, Cd, Li, Ni, Cr, Pb, Sr, Ba. Plant species behaved differentially to the mixture of cations with differential partitioning among plant parts. Exclusion phenomena discussed in the original Collander paper are mostly retention in roots with little transloca‐tion to shoots. The extra cations in some cases increased yields, in some cases decreased yields with no differences in others. Several‐nutrient element interactions were indicated. The Ca vs Sr is not exactly like that suggested by Collander.

Key words:

• Cations
• trace metals
• root‐shoot partitioning
• plant stress
• Collander