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Role of Chelating Agents on the Availability of Nutrients to Plants¹

ABSTRACT

The presence of natural chelating agents is one of several possible explanations of how plants are able to obtain Fe which ordinarily in soil is very insoluble. The role of such chelating agents in plant nutrition is mostly an unexplored field. Synthetic chelating agents are proving useful in supplying Fe and to a lesser extent Zn and Mn to plants under conditions in which plants are subject to deficiencies of those metals. The chelating agents keep the metals soluble in the soil and are taken up by the plants with the metals. The two components may be separated in the roots but both can be transported to leaves. Chelating agents without metals often compete with roots and soil for metals and are generally not a good method of correcting micronutrient deficiencies. There are other interactions of soils, chelating agents, and micronutrients. Plant species differ greatly in their responses to chelated metals and some fail to respond.

¹ This study was supported in part by a Contract with the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission Contract AT(11-1)-34, Project 51 and by a grant from the Geigy Chemical Corp. Presented before Div. III, Soil Science Society of America, Nov. 28, 1961, at St. Louis, Mo.

² Professor, Department of Plant Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles 24.

Received for publication April 24, 1962. Accepted for publication July 16, 1962.