A3B-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 6,1985
WASHINGTON - Chilly soil can
reduce the level of zinc and other
trace minerals in plants, so people
get less in their diets, say scientists
at the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
Crops dislike “cold feet,” so
even a slight drop in soil tem
perature slows down the uptake of
minerals by roots, said David L.
Grimes, soil scientist, and Ross M.
Welch, plant physiologist, of
USDA’s Agricultural Research
Service.
According to them, new
laboratory studies show cold soils
keep tap roots from penetrating
deeply and putting out a thick
network of branch or side roots in
the lower depths to absorb
minerals.
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Plants can get ‘cold feet’ too
When soil temperatures hover
around 50 degrees Fahrenheit,
consumers may get less than
expected amounts of minerals in
foods.
This happens because a smaller
root system cannot fully do the
work of supplying mineral
nutrients to the plant, according to
Grimes and Welch, who are based
at the research agency’s U.S.
"Plant, Soil and Nutrition
Laboratory, Ithaca, N.Y.
“We’re doing root research
because agriculture has a wealth
of information about what happens
within plant parts above ground,
but relatively little is known about
what goes on in the tangled world
of roots. Yet, roots are the critical
point m the plant’s ability to ab
sorb nutrients, watei did essential
ions,” Grunes said.
So far, Grunes and his colleagues
have studied mineral uptake by
such grain crops as corn, barley
and wheat, but future research will
involve other crops.
As an example of what can
happen, he pointed to North
Dakota field studies several years
ago of corn grown on soils low m
zinc and phosphorus. Grunes found
that the plants, grown on cold soil,
had stunted roots and showed
severe symptoms of deficiency m
both zinc and phosphorus.
An agency research team in
Ithaca also has shown in recent
greenhouse work that barley
plants have much less zinc in their
tops when the root-zone tern-
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perature is low. Ironically, when
the root-zone temperature is low,
more zinc is absorbed by the roots,
but it stays in root cells.
When the root-zone temperature
increases, greater amounts of zinc
can travel into the top or edible
parts of the barley plant, ac
cording to the findings of the team
of Grimes, Welch, chemist Earle
E. Cary, and soil scientists Wen
dell A. Norvell of the research
agency and visiting soil scientist
Samuel M. Schwartz of the Volcam
Center, Bet-Dagan, Israel.
In its barley studies, the team
also found that at a soil tem
perature of 68 degrees F., the
plants produced many branched
roots which fanned out and filled
thier six-inch deep, one-gallon
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By contrast, at 50 degrees F., the
barley plants put forth only a few
long, thick roots with some hairhke
rootlets. Branching was confined
to the older parts of roots in the
upper three inches of soil. Grimes
said. •
Knowledge of how and when zinc
moves into the food chain is im
portant because it is an essential
element. Evidence points to
borderline deficiencies in livestock
and some human population
groups.
Plants need only about 20 parts
per million of zinc in their tissues,
but animals and humans need
more - about 30 parts per million -
in their diets.
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