Some Nutrient Concentrations in Wheat Grain are More Affected by Soil Nutrient Availability than Others.

Crop roots take up plant required nutrients and other minerals that are not necessary for plant growth, but are beneficial to animals and humans. A portion of total uptake of these nutrients are translocated to the grain of crops. This presentation will report the results of a study comparing plant available nutrients in the soil, as measured by soil analysis before planting, to the concentration of those nutrients in the harvested grain of wheat. The study design consisted of ten different wheat genotypes (five bread wheat, three durum and two feed cultivars) grown at six different locations in southern Saskatchewan and southern Alberta, during the growing season of 2010. The correlation between soil test nutrient availability level and nutrient content of the harvested grain was different for each nutrient. Some grain nutrient contents were significantly correlated to availability in the soil, while others were not. It appears that some nutrient concentrations in the grain stay within a certain range of concentration whether or not availability on the soil is in excess to crop needs or not, while other nutrients will be in higher in concentration if availability is greater. One non plant mineral, sodium, was observed to be taken up in greater amounts into wheat grain from a soil affected by salinity dominated by sodium sulfate salts compared to non saline soils in the same study.