AbstractsBiology & Animal Science

In the United States, Canada and in various countries throughout Europe a great deal of research has been conducted on the nature and cause of boron starvation in plants. This has led to the accumulation of valuable information as well as to the proposal of several theories concerning the abnormal effects occurring in plants when grown on a substratum in which the available supply of boron is inadequate or lacking. An examination of the literature on the study of the physiological effects occuring in plants due to a lack of boron reveals that there is a good deal of evidence to indicate a relationship existing between calcium and boron. Observations show that this interrelationship occurs both in the soil and in the plant. After much experimental work and observations in the field and greenhouse, a number of investigators have concluded that several factors may determine whether or not plants will suffer from a deficiency of boron. The least important of these factors may be fee boron content of the surface soil, while of much greater importance may be the permeability of the subsoil horizons and those factors which affect boron availability such as the supply of calcium, organic matter and soil texture. On the other hand the possibility of this interrelationship between calcium and boron occuring in the plant rather than in the soil has been brought forth by thee fact that numerous investigators have shown that the pathological symptoms produced in plants by a boron deficiency are remarkably similar to those produced by a calcium deficiency under like experimental conditions.[...]