Measuring Potato Nutrient Accumulation Rates and Documenting Nutrient Deficiency Symptoms

Seasonal Nutrient Accumulation Patterns

Objective: Work cooperatively with IPNI to generate data on various species for “normal” nutrient concentrations and uptake patterns through the crop growing season.

Description: Two possible routes. One would be to do all of the work ourselves. Picking a species in consultation with IPNI (determinate and indeterminate). Sampling the various plant parts biweekly (whole plant, leaves, fruit, tubers etc.) doing the chemical analysis, and processing the data.

Considerations: It would be very interesting to do this across regions to see how varying soils and climates would impact the results. Variety/Hybrid would also be something that needs to eventually be examined.

Capability: We are uniquely suited to perform this work. Our laboratory is largely subsidized and, thus, we can perform the tissue chemical analysis at a low cost. Our data quality is excellent as we have a thorough quality assurance/quality control program. For this season, we could do late developing crops. I would suggest starting with potatoes.

Needs: Direction from IPNI on species priority in the future. We currently are working on potato, Kentucky bluegrass, maize, soybean, wheat, barley, alfalfa, sugarbeet, lettuce, common bean, and a variety of garden crops—which we have expertise in growing both hydroponically and in soil. However, we are very open to IPNI perspective on which species are needed most. It is anticipated with our low labor and analytical costs, this type of data collection could develop into a multi-year partnership with IPNI.


Developing Deficiency Symptoms in the Greenhouse

Objective: Work cooperatively with IPNI (and Dr. Dharma Pitchay) to generate nutritional books for a variety of crop and urban landscape plants as shown in the following: https://www.amazon.com/Plant-Nutrition-Diagnostics-Broccoli-Pitchay-ebook/dp/B01CF1FE8E?ie=UTF8&keywords=mikkelsen%20broccoli&qid=1458342229&ref_=sr_1_1&s=books&sr=1-1

Description: Dr. Pitchay selects a species in cooperation with IPNI and grows it hydroponically in his greenhouse under a variety of nutrient deficiencies. He carefully documents visual symptoms for all plant parts, including roots—taking very high quality images.

Capability: We are uniquely suited to perform this work. In general, we already to this type of work, although not all at once as Dr. Pitchay does. We have the room in our greenhouse to do this work, but perhaps not all of the nutrients at one time for large species, such as maize. We have several new growth chambers that would allow us to do small-sized species and we have two moderately sized greenhouse rooms to do larger plants.

Needs:

• We need to develop better capability to document the visual symptoms with excellence (as is done by Dr. Pitchay). We did a preliminary study with Kentucky bluegrass with some good results, but we still need some further refinement. We have consulted a professional photographer and are developing the required skills for photo processing with PhotoShop.
• Need to pre-arrange space issues and provide overhead for the use of BYU facilities.
• Direction from IPNI on species priority. We have previously grown potato, Kentucky bluegrass, maize, soybean, wheat, barley, alfalfa, sugarbeet, lettuce, common bean, and a variety of garden crops —which we have expertise in growing these crops both hydroponically and in soil. We are also very interested in beginning to work with urban landscape plants. However, we are very open to IPNI input on which plant species are most important to develop deficiency symptoms.