An agronomic and physiological re-evaluation of the potassium and sodium requirements and fertilizer recommendations for sugar beet

The potassium (K) and sodium (Na) requirements of sugar beet were re-examined in a 6-year series of experiments between 2000 and 2005 using reference plots with a wide range of long-established differences in exchangeable topsoil K (Kex). Two groups of plots with a topsoil concentration Kex range of 40–550 mg/kg were used, each situated within an individual field, one on a silty clay loam at Rothamsted and the other on a contrasting sandy loam at Woburn. The interactions between topsoil Kex and applied N, K and Na fertilizers were studied at Rothamsted. Under these well-defined conditions, maximum yields of 55–71 t/ha of adjusted clean beet were achieved with a topsoil Kex concentration of 120–150 mg/kg, i.e. at Soil K Index 2–, with a small difference between the two soils being accounted for by differences in exchangeable soil Na and subsoil Kex. There were no yield responses to freshly applied fertilizer K, even on low K plots where responses might be expected. It is concluded that the existing recommendations for K fertilizer use on UK sugar beet do not need to be adjusted to allow for the higher yields of modern crops. There were no yield responses to NaCl fertilizer at any level of topsoil Kex at Rothamsted (where the soil contained 15–20 mg Na/kg), but yields were increased on low Kex plots at Woburn whose sandy loam contained only 5–10 mg Na/kg. The uptake of Na from the applied NaCl fertilizer was strongly influenced by the exchangeable K and Na status of the soil. On the low Na soil at Woburn, almost all of the applied Na was taken up by sugar beet grown on plots with low concentrations of topsoil Kex and half of it on plots with adequate concentrations of topsoil Kex compared with two-thirds and one-fifth, respectively, on the higher Na-content soil at Rothamsted. Plants partitioned 0·75 of their K and 0·95 of their Na to the shoot and the balance to the storage root. This pattern of distribution was consistent across sites, seasons and soil K supply. The physiological interactions between K and Na were studied by examining their millimolar concentrations in the tissue-water (mmol/kg) of the shoots and storage roots. The tissue-water concentrations of K in the shoot increased asymptotically with the concentration of Kex in the topsoil, and the increase in K concentration was accompanied by a corresponding decrease in the tissue-water concentration of Na. Maximum concentrations of K in shoot tissue-water (and minimum concentrations of Na) were ac