JOWL OP AMfflTO RESEARCH 
Vol. XIV Washington, D. C., July 22, 1918 No. 4 
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SALT REQUIREMENTS FOR 
YOUNG AND FOR MATURE BUCKWHEAT PLANTS 
IN SOLUTION CULTURES 
By John W. Shive, Plant Physiologist , and William H. Martin, Research Assistant 
in Plant Pathology, New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station 
INTRODUCTION 
Since the general recognition of the fact that the mineral elements 
essential to plant growth are derived from the soil solution and not, as 
suggested by Liebig, directly from the soil particles, culture solutions 
have assumed a very important r 61 e in the investigation of problems 
relating to plant nutrition. The first standard nutrient solution for 
plants was proposed by Sachs (5) 1 in i860. Since then a number of 
formulas for the preparation of standard nutrient solutions have been 
suggested by different investigators. Many of the standard solutions 
now in common use have been recommended as producing good growth 
of various kinds of plants, without reference to any particular stage of 
development in the life cycle of the plant, for which the solutions are 
best adapted. It is entirely possible, however, that in a culture solution 
the relative proportions of the mineral constituents required to produce 
good growth of a given species during one physiological period might 
be entirely different from the proportions of the same constituents 
required to maintain equally good growth during another developmental 
period. A nutritive medium which is capable of producing good seed* 
lings rooted in it might not be at all suitable for sustaining the develop¬ 
ment of the same plants with the approach of maturity nor for producing 
seed. On the other hand, a nutritive solution or other medium which 
is well adapted to the growth of mature plants might actually be inju¬ 
rious to the seedlings of the same species. 
The nutrient medium recommended by Tottingham (8) and the 
3-salt solution later proposed by Shive (6) are known to produce excel¬ 
lent growth of wheat seedlings during the first three or four weeks of 
development after germination. Whether these solutions are capable 
of sustaining the growth of wheat plants equally well throughout their 
entire life period, has not been determined. 
1 Reference is made by number (italic) to “literature cited/’ p. 17s. 
Journal of Agricultural Research, 
Washington, D. C. 
ok 
( I S I ) 
Vol. XIV, No. 4 
July 22, 1918 
Key No. N.J.- 
