Browsing by Author "Lu, Yao"

Faba bean (Vicia faba L.) is one of the major grain legumes grown in the world. It is an important winter and spring crop in subtropical areas and one of the most important vegetable protein sources for human and animals. Phosphorus (P) is the second most essential and the second most frequently limiting element for plant growth following nitrogen (N). It plays an important role in various metabolic processes. There are plenty of P sources in the earth, which should be more than enough for plant growth, but unfortunately much of the P is in plant-unavailable forms. Struvite and apatite are two types of phosphate rock minerals that can be used to provide P for plants. The object is to evaluate the physiological responses of different accessions of faba bean to both soluble phosphate and mineral phosphorus treatments, to investigate the ability of faba bean to make use of struvite and apatite as P sources, and to screen the cultivars and accessions of faba bean with high P-efficiency of struvite and apatite. A condition-controlled greenhouse work was conducted. The experiment comprised 54 treatment combinations of 6 faba bean cultivars chosen world-widely, 3 levels of soluble phosphorus fertilizers (0, 20, 60 kg ha-1 P2O5), and 3 types of growing media (unsupplemented, with struvite, and with apatite) laid out as a factorial in RCBD with 4 replicates. Under P stress, all accessions showed short plant height, slow photosynthetic rate, small leaf area, weight and number, small shoot and root weight, large root:shoot ratio, less shoot and root P concentration, small or few tillers, and delayed flowering time. All accessions can utilize both struvite and apatite in some degree and utilize struvite more efficiently. Thus, struvite could be an alternative possible P source for some faba bean cultivars. Witkiem Manita was the most tolerant to P deficiency. SSNS-1 was the least tolerant to P deficiency and the most efficient at use of struvite. It showed a short stem with other hindered characters, but it recovered easily and quickly when P nutrient either soluble P or struvite was supplied.