Comparative effects of potassium levels on growth and mineral composition of intact and nematized cowpea and sour orange seedlings

Abstract

Potassium (K) is important in the productivity of legumes and citrus. Many workers have demonstrated that the addition of K was associated with an increased reproduction rate of several nematode pathogens, e.g. Tylenchorhynchus and Pratylenchus (Oteifa and Diab, 1961), Meloidogyne (Haque et al., 1973 and Oteifa, 1951 and 1968) and Rotylenchulus (Ismail, 1975). However, there has been no comparison of the growth and mineral composition of healthy and infected plants under different K fertility levels. Such a study may help to identify the additional potassium required to compensate for nematode loss.