Response of Hard Red Spring Wheat to Copper Fertilization

• Published in: Communications in soil science and plant analysis Vol. 39; no. 15-16; pp. 2411 - 2420
• Main Author: Rehm, G.W
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia, PA Taylor & Francis Group, LLC 01.09.2008; Taylor & Francis
• Subjects: Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; Biological and medical sciences; copper; Copper application; copper chelate; copper fertilizers; copper sulfate; fertilizer rates; fertilizer requirements; fertilizer response; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; grain yield; hard red spring wheat; loamy sand soils; plant nutrition; soil fertility; soil organic matter; Triticum aestivum; wheat; Minnesota; Monocotyledones; Spring crops; Fertilization; copper chelate; Cereal crop; Inorganic compound; Hard wheat; Gramineae; Angiospermae; Chelation; Spermatophyta; wheat; Copper; Triticum aestivum; Copper application; Copper sulfate
• ISSN: 0010-3624; 1532-2416
• DOI: 10.1080/00103620802292681

To achieve optimum production of hard red spring wheat, growers should know if use of copper (Cu) in a fertilizer program is necessary. For this study, copper was broadcast and incorporated before planting in the sulfate or chelate form to supply both 6.7 and 13.4 kg Cu ha-1 at six sites. The soils at the majority of the sites had a loamy fine sand texture with low organic-matter content. Application of Cu increased grain yield at one site. Grain yield response, however, could not be predicted by amount of Cu extracted from soil by the diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) procedure. Concentrations of Cu in whole plant tissue did not match those reported in the literature. The results of this study do not support the addition of Cu to a fertilizer program for production of hard red spring wheat on mineral soils in the northern Great Plains.