Potassium's role in crop resistance to drought and low temperature

IPNI-1993-CHN-C11

17 May 2001

1995 Annual Interpretive Summary


Potassium's role in crop resistance to drought and low temperature, 1995

Potassium sufficient corn plants had greater tolerance to low temperatures and water stress as a result of improved cell membrane integrity. These improvements were associated with greater uptake of P under cool temperatures and increased leaf chlorophyll content. Although plant growth was depressed by cool temperatures, the study shows that high K nutrition helped offset the temperature effect by increasing shoot and root growth by 95 percent and 112 percent, respectively, over the no K treatment at low temperatures compared to 50 percent and 72 percent, respectively, for normal temperature conditions. BAU-01