Determination of the Critical Phosphorus Concentration for Corn (Zea mays L.) Using the EBB and Flow System

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate and assess the suitability of ebb and flow system in determining the critical concentration of phosphorus in plant tissue. There were five treatments consisting of different levels of P added in the form of NaH2PO4*H2O arranged in a Completely Randomized Design. Parameters such as plant dry matter yield and biomass were gathered at the end of the experiment. Results showed that the critical P concentration of corn at the early stage of growth using the ebb and flow hydroponic system was 0.29 % wherein the dry matter yield highly correlates with the P concentration of corn (r = 0.98). The result was nearly within the range of critical P levels obtained using different methods. It is concluded that ebb and flow hydroponic system is very useful for plant nutrition studies and the use of the method is highly recommended in any studies involving plant CNC determination.

Keywords

• Crtical P concentration
• corn
• ebb and flow system

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